/ 


A«^ 


.^> 


THE  NEW   WORLD 


AND 


THE  NEW  THOUGHT 


( 


BY 
JAMES  THOMPSON  BIXBY,  Ph.D. 

A  uthor  of 
The  Ethics  of  Evolution, ^^  ^'Religion  and  Science  as  Allies** 
"The  Open  Secret** 


Boston,   Mass. 

THE  BEACON  PRESS 

25  Beacon  Street 

1915 


SECOND  EDITION 


Copyright,  1902 

by 

James  Thompson  Bixby 


THE  BEACON  PRESS 
BOSTON 


Contents. 


CHAP.  PAGB 

I.    The  Expansion  of  the  Universe  and  the  Enlarge- 
ment OF  Faith 5 

II.    The  Sanction  for  Morality  in  Nature 30 

III.  The  Agnostic's  Difficulties  and  the  Knowability 

OF  Divine  Realities 54 

IV.  The  Scientific  Validity  of  Our  Religious  Instincts,  98 
V.    Evolution  and  Christianity 116 

VI.    The  Old  Testament  as  Literature 137 

VII.    Christian  Discipleship  and  Modern  Life 163 

VIII.    Modern  Dogmatism  and  the  Unbelief  of  the  Age,  180 

IX.    Union  of  the  Churches  in  One  Spiritual  House- 
hold   199 


The  New  World  and  The  New 
Thought 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   EXPANSION    OF   THE   UNIVERSE   AND   THE   ENLARGE- 
MENT  OF   FAITH. 

As  the  traveler  visits  the  old  shrines  and  cathedrals 
of  Europe,  or  the  scholar  delves  among  the  mediaeval 
treatises  on  astronomy  or  geography,  he  is  continu- 
ally meeting  with  conceptions  of  the  world  and  its 
creation  of  a  most  curious  and  childlike  simplicity.  A 
frequently  recurring  group  in  the  sculptures,  mosaics, 
stained-glass  or  missal  paintings  of  the  Middle  Ages  is 
that  which  represents  the  Almighty  in  human  form, 
moulding  the  sun,  moon,  or  stars,  and  with  His  own 
hands  hanging  them  from  the  solid  firmament  which 
supports  the  upper  heaven  and  its  celestial  waters  and 
which  overarches  the  great  plain  of  earth ;  and  when 
the  work  of  the  six  days  is  finished  He  is  represented 
as  sitting,  bent  and  fatigued,  in  the  well-known  atti- 
tude of  the  "  Weary  Mercury  "  of  classical  sculpture. 
As  late  as  the  seventeenth  century,  Milton,  in  his 
poetic  representation  of  the  popular  theology  of  his 
day,  does  not  hesitate  at  the  most  literal  description 

5 


6         THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

of  how  the  second  person  in  the  Trinity,  when  the 
hour  for  making  the  universe  came 

«*  Took  the  golden  compasses,  prepared 
In  God's  eternal  store,  to  circumscribe 
This  universe  and  all  created  things. 
One  foot  He  centred,  and  the  other  turned 
Round  through  the  vast  profundity  obscure, 
And  said,  '  Thus  far  extend  ;  thus  far  thy  bounds : 
This  be  thy  just  circumference,  O  world.'  " 

The  two  statements  in  the  Genesis  myths,  that  the 
world  was  made  in  six  days  and  also  that  "  God  spake 
and  it  was  done,"  were  both  of  them  accepted  in  the 
most  literal  way  by  the  great  ecclesiastical  and  scien- 
tific authorities  of  Christendom  down  to  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  contradiction  of  an  instantaneous  crea- 
tion which  lasted  through  six  days  was  usually  recon- 
ciled by  some  explanation,  like  that  of  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas,  which  was  adopted  even  by  Luther  and  the 
earlier  Protestant  Reformers,  viz. :  that  God  created 
the  substance  of  the  world  in  a  single  moment  but 
employed  the  six  days  in  separating,  shaping  and 
further  adorning  it.  As  to  the  date  of  this  great 
event,  it  was  the  general  verdict  of  both  Catholic  and 
Protestant  authorities  down  to  a  century  or  two  ago 
that  it  could  hardly  be  more  than  6,000  years  ago. 

As  to  the  shape  and  dimensions  of  the  world,  the 
prevalent  ideas  during  the  Middle  Ages  were  marked 
by  a  precision  and  pettiness  equally  crude.  Follow- 
ing unreflectingly  the  lead  of  whatever  imagery  the 
Scripture  presented,  they  insisted  that  the  earth  was 
at  creation  vaulted  over  with  a  solid  dome  or  ceiling, 
the  firmament  of  Genesis,  above  which  was  the  celes- 


TEE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  7 

tial  cistern,  containing  the  waters  which  are  above  the 
firmament.  It  is  through  apertures  in  this  vault,  "  the 
windows  of  heaven,"  that  the  rains  are  allowed  to  fall 
on  the  earth  by  God  and  His  angels ;  and  above  it,  in 
the  third  heaven,  or  seventh  as  others  said,  is  the 
customary  abode  of  the  Almighty  and  His  court.  In 
the  curious  description  of  the  universe,  based  upon 
Scripture,  written  in  the  sixth  century  by  Cosmas  In- 
dicopleustes,  which  for  a  long  while  was  regarded  as 
most  authoritative,  the  ideas  of  the  early  Christian 
theologians  were  summed  up  in  a  complete  system. 
As  in  the  ninth  chapter  of  Hebrews  the  world  is 
likened  to  the  tabernacle  in  the  desert,  it  must  be 
oblong  in  shape.  Like  the  table  of  shew-bread,  the 
earth  is  flat,  and  twice  as  long  as  broad,  400  days' 
journey  one  way  and  200  the  other.  It  is  surrounded 
by  four  seas,  at  the  outer  edges  of  which  rise  massive 
walls,  the  pillars  of  heaven  of  which  Job  speaks,  on 
which  the  vault  of  heaven  rests.  The  disappearance 
of  the  sun  at  night  is  caused  by  its  passing  behind  a 
great  mountain  at  the  north  of  the  earth. 

Although  by  the  scholars  of  subsequent  centuries 
this  naive  representation  of  the  world  was  much  re- 
fined and  modified,  yet  the  general  conception  of  the 
universe  as  a  sort  of  huge  house,  with  heaven  as  its 
upper  story  and  the  earth  as  its  lower  story,  prevailed 
among  the  people  and  a  large  part  of  the  world  of 
scholars,  close  down  to  the  modern  period. 

When  the  sky-parlor  of  the  heavenly  host  was  so 
little  a  way  off,  legends  of  saints  and  prophets  caught 
up  to  heaven  or  of  angels  flying  down  to  earth,  of 
heavenly  voices  speaking   from  the  upper  story  to 


8         TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

chosen  men  on  the  lower,  or  of  frequent  special  inter- 
ventions by  heavenly  powers  to  rescue  the  holy  or 
punish  the  wicked,  would  most  naturally  arise.  Even 
when  men's  conceptions  began  to  enlarge,  they  still 
remained  comparatively  diminutive.  Certain  Egyp- 
tian astronomers,  says  Flammarion,  calculated  that  the 
sun  was  369  miles  distant  and  Saturn  492.  An 
Italian  system,  that  the  same  astronomer  mentions, 
was  on  a  somewhat  more  generous  scale.  The  crys- 
talline sphere  in  which  the  moon  was  set  was  107,000 
miles  distant,  Mercury  209,000  and  the  sun  3,892,000. 
As  late  as  the  sixteenth  century,  Zwingli  and  the 
early  Protestant  Reformers  held  to  the  view  of  the 
church  fathers  that  a  solid  floor  or  dome  separated  the 
heavens  from  the  earth,  that  above  it  were  the  waters 
and  the  abode  of  the  angels,  and  below  it  the  earth 
and  man.  And  in  the  cellar  of  this  world-house,  not 
far  below  the  earth's  crust,  popular  superstition,  cor- 
roborated by  the  authority  of  great  poets  like  Virgil, 
Dante,  and  Milton,  located  the  caverns  of  the  under- 
world, from  which  imp  and  devil  and  perturbed  spirit 
came  up  at  times  to  walk  the  earth. 

To-day,  how  has  science  stretched  out  this  baby- 
house  universe  of  our  ancestors !  The  astronomer 
has  turned  his  telescope  on  that  adamantine  firmament 
and  it  has  dissolved  into  thin  air.  The  glittering 
points  that  gemmed  its  surface  have  expanded  into 
enormous  suns,  thousands  of  times  as  large  as  our  own 
globe.  The  petty  heaven  of  the  Book  of  Revelation 
12,000  furlongs  or  1,379  English  miles  each  way 
has  spread  out,  from  that  one-twentieth  part  or  less 
gf  the  cubic  dimensions  which  we  now  know  our  own 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  9 

earth  to  have,  into  an  immensity  of  space  which  it  is 
difficult  to  reaHze.  Let  us  try  by  a  few  facts  to  give 
some  conception  of  its  grandeur. 

Milton,  in  "  Paradise  Lost,"  in  accordance  with  the 
older  ideas  of  the  size  of  the  universe,  thought  that 
nine  days  was  an  adequate  length  of  time  for  the  rebel 
archangel,  who  was  thrown  out  of  heaven,  to  fall  down 
from  the  top  of  the  universe  and  the  courts  of  God  to 
the  depths  of  hell.  But  we  now  know  that  if  a  steam- 
ship, moving  at  the  average  rate,  had  started  in 
Columbus*  Hfetime  for  the  sun,  it  would  not  have 
reached  its  goal  to-day.  If  a  baby  were  put  in  an  ex- 
press train,  moving  at  highest  locomotive  speed,  to  go 
to  our  solar  luminary,  the  baby  would  die  of  old  age 
before  it  could  arrive  there.  If  that  locomotive  went 
onward  towards  our  nearest  fixed  star,  stopping 
neither  day  nor  night,  it  would  take  it  700,000  cen- 
turies to  get  there. 

The  speed  of  a  locomotive  is  evidently  too  slow  a 
standard  to  use  as  a  measure  among  these  immense 
spaces.  Let  us  take,  then,  for  our  imaginary  courier, 
the  fastest  traveler  we  know  of,  the  wave  of  sunlight, 
speeding  186,000  miles  a  second.  How  long  would 
it  take  even  a  beam  of  sunhght  to  reach  the  nearest 
sun  beyond  our  own  ?  Not  less  than  three  and  one 
quarter  years;  for  it  is  no  less  than  20,000,000,000 
miles  away.  If  we  should  want  to  go  to  Sirius  and 
could  get  the  same  lightning  courier,  the  waves  of  the 
starlight,  to  take  us,  it  would  require  twenty-two 
years.  To  get  to  the  pole  star  it  would  take  fifty 
years  ;  to  pass  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the  Milky 
Way,  that  great  star-cluster  nearest  to  us,  it  would 


10        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

take  a  ray  of  light  15,000  years.  To  reach  a  star  of 
the  fourteenth  magnitude  would  require  100,000 
years. 

By  the  naked  eye  we  can  see  some  6,000  stars,  each 
a  sun,  all  at  such  immense  intervals  from  one  another. 
But  the  telescope  discerns  45,000,000  stars  and  nebulas ; 
the  photographic  eye,  more  subtle  still,  might  take 
the  record,  it  is  calculated,  of  160,000,000  stars. 
There  are  over  1,000  nebulae  which  the  telescope 
resolves  into  swarms  of  stars.  These  are  supposed  to 
be  great  groups,  similar  to  our  Milky  Way,  dimmed 
and  drawn  together,  apparently  by  the  immense  dis- 
tance at  which  they  are  situated.  In  that  case,  how 
far  off  are  they  ?  Over  300  times  as  far  as  the  farthest 
suns  in  our  Milky  Way  ;  and  it  would  take  the  nimble 
messenger  of  light  4,000,000  years  to  get  there. 
How  huge  must  these  suns  be  that  can  send  the  un- 
dulations of  their  light  across  such  enormous  space ! 
Into  what  amazing  pettiness  has  astronomy  shriveled 
our  proud  centre  of  the  universe,  and,  dislodging  it 
from  its  former  prominent  position,  sent  it  whirling  on 
its  way  as  one  of  the  smaller  satellites  in  the  train  of  a 
central  body,  the  sun,  which,  though  as  much  larger 
than  the  earth  as  a  cart-wheel  is  larger  than  a  pea,  is 
yet  but  one  of  more  than  20,000,000  suns  contained 
in  its  own  part  of  space,  and  is  itself  not  stationary, 
but  revolving  through  space,  with  its  fleet  of  planets, 
at  the  rate  of  4,000  miles  a  day,  around  perhaps  some 
still  larger  sun. 

Verily,  these  infinities  of  space  set  the  brain  reeling, 
in  the  vain  effort  to  realize  them.  Let  us  turn,  then, 
to  the  changes  in  our  estimates  of  the  earth's  duration 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  11 

and  our  ideas  of  time.  Here,  again,  how  enormously 
has  science  multiplied  the  numbers  !  How  utterly  in- 
adequate are  those  dates  for  man's  first  appearance  on 
the  globe  and  the  beginning  of  the  earth  that  were 
generally  accepted  one  hundred  years  ago  and  are  still 
printed  in  the  margin  of  the  Bibles  issued  by  our 
Bible  societies  !  It  was  in  the  year  4004  b.  c,  accord- 
ing to  the  great  chronological  authority  and  theo- 
logian. Archbishop  Usher,  that  the  creation  of  the 
world  took  place,  a  date  settled  by  the  authority  of 
the  Holy  Bible ;  and  Dr.  Lightfoot,  Vice-Chancellor 
of  Cambridge  University,  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
with  still  finer  precision,  fixed  the  day  and  hour  at  the 
23d  of  October  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
Luther  declared,  on  the  authority  of  Moses,  that 
longer  ago  than  6,000  years  the  world  did  not  exist. 
Pope  Urban  VII  was  anxious  to  allow  a  little  more 
time  to  have  elapsed  since  the  creation  of  man ;  but 
his  extreme  limit  was  5199  b.  c. 

To-day  these  sixty  centuries  are  but  a  handbreadth 
of  the  time  that  science  demands.  Sixty  millenniums 
would  hardly  sufifice.  Science  has  mined  in  caverns 
and  found  man's  tools  and  weapons  among  the  bones 
of  mammoths.  It  has  deciphered  hieroglyphics  and 
found  arts  and  history  already  venerable  before  the 
date  when  commentators  admitted  that  Adam  had 
begun  to  breathe.  As  far  back  as  6,000  and  7,000  years 
before  Christ,  among  the  cities  and  temples  of  Baby- 
lonia and  Egypt,  man  was  living  a  civiHzed  or  semi- 
civilized  life.  For  the  quarternary  age,  in  the  early 
part  of  which  unmistakable  relics  of  man  are  found, 
geology  demands  a  period  of  at  least  10,000  years. 


12        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

For  the  tertiary  and  secondary  epochs,  and  the  im- 
mensely thick  deposits  belonging  to  them,  not  less 
than  3,000,000  years  will  suffice.  For  the  primary  and 
primeval  or  azoic  ages,  not  less  than  17,000,000 
years  more  are  needed.  Recall  what  vast  beds  of 
chalk  and  limestone,  miles  in  thickness,  have  been 
built  up  by  the  microscopic  creatures  who  have  lived 
and  died  in  the  primitive  oceans;  how  from  a  fiery 
cloud  the  globe  concentrated  to  a  molten  ball,  and  on 
the  molten  ball  formed  the  crust  that  now  suspends 
us  above  the  still  furnace-heated  interior.  How  long 
a  time  should  we  estimate  for  these  aeonic  changes  ? 
From  the  experiments  of  the  physicist,  Bischoff,  with 
molten  basalt  and  its  rate  of  cooling  to  a  solid  state, 
the  scientists  infer  that  for  the  earth  to  cool  from  the 
2,000  degrees  centigrade  of  the  former  molten  state 
down  to  200  centigrade,  would  require  at  least 
350,000,000  years.  Then  for  the  condensation  of 
our  solar  nebula,  (originally  extending  beyond  the 
orbit  of  Neptune,  i.  e.,  5,000,000,000  miles  in  diam- 
eter), into  the  sun  and  planets,  and  the  further  cool- 
ing down  from  the  heated  solid  state  to  the  temper- 
ature where  life  could  begin,  additional  millions  of 
years  would  be  required ;  and  when  we  recall  how 
many  thousand  times  larger  than  our  sun  are  many  of 
the  solar  globes,  is  not  the  chronology  of  the  heavens 
carried  back  into  an  antiquity,  in  comparison  with 
whose  veritable  eternity  the  age  of  those  hills  that  of 
old  were  dubbed  "  everlasting  "  seems  but  as  a  single 
breath  of  a  summer's  insect. 

Such  is  the  amazing  immensity  of  the  universe  that 
modern  science  has  disclosed,  an  illimitable  extension 


TEE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  13 

and  duration  before  which  the  wing  of  Imagination 
grows  weary,  in  the  effort  to  reaHze  even  vaguely  how 
vast  is  its  sweep.  It  is  evident  that  this  changed  scale 
of  the  physical  universe  must  suggest  to  the  reason  of 
man  an  analogous  change  in  our  view  of  the  origin, 
nature  and  destiny  of  man  and  the  methods  of  God's 
government. 

Can  we  still  hold  man  to  be  the  aim  and  end  of 
creation  ?  Can  we  still  think,  many  to-day  are  asking, 
that  the  earth  and  heavens  were  fitted  up  specially  for 
his  abode?  that  the  animal  world  was  made  just 
for  his  food,  and  the  trees  to  shade  his  head  from  the 
heat  ?  the  sun  to  warm  him  by  day  and  the  moon  and 
stars  to  supply  light  to  his  path  by  night  ? 

Is  man  not  shown,  by  this  immense  magnitude  of 
the  universe,  to  be  but  a  most  ephemeral  and  infini- 
tesimal insect,  the  spawn  of  the  primeval  slime,  a 
creature  altogether  too  insignificant  to  be  supposed 
to  have  been  specially  created  or  specially  cared  for  ? 
What  else  but  fables  of  man's  credulous  childhood  are 
those  faiths  that  held  man  to  be  a  child  of  God,  made 
in  the  divine  image,  or  that  he  has  been  the  recipient 
of  divine  revelations,  and  that  the  Son  of  God  left 
His  place  by  God's  right  hand,  and  choosing  out 
of  all  the  million  solar  and  planetary  systems  in  space 
this  most  insignificant  speck,  called  earth,  was  here 
incarnated  in  a  human  form,  to  supply  salvation  by 
His  blood  to  those  who  should  enter  the  church  He 
should  found?  Science,  with  its  searching  instru- 
ments, has  investigated  earth  and  heaven.  No  tele- 
scope has  caught  sight  in  the  remotest  recesses  of 
any  Titan  king  seated  on  a  celestial  throne ;  no  mi- 


14        TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

croscope  has  observed  any  soul  within  the  tissues  of 
the  brain  ;  no  mining  shaft  has  found  a  limbo  of  de- 
parted spirits  beneath  the  earth's  crust.  The  fires  are 
there,  but  no  trace  of  any  imps  or  devils  or  ghostly 
shades.  Dust  to  dust  is  the  law  of  life.  We  beein  as 
a  chemical  composition  ;  we  end,  when  the  machinery 
runs  down,  as  a  chemical  decomposition.  When 
thousands  of  worlds  are  burning  out  into  lifeless 
cinders,  by  inevitable  laws  of  the  dissipation  of  energy 
and  the  cooling  down  of  every  warmer  sphere  to  the 
average  temperature  or,  we  should  better  say,  refrig- 
eration, of  the  interstellar  space,  some  200  degrees, 
as  it  is,  below  zero,  why  should  we  fancy  this 
petty  biped  of  a  man  should  escape  the  general 
death  ? 

Such  are  the  questions  and  dilemmas,  sometimes 
put  in  very  scoffing  tones,  that  in  the  minds  of  a 
large  and  growing  class  among  us  are  daily  arising, 
and  daily  alienating  them  more  and  more  from  the 
older  views  of  man's  origin,  nature  and  destiny. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  champions  of  the  older  faith 
maintain  that  in  spite  of  this  immense  expansion  of 
the  universe  we  may  still  look  on  man  as  the  chief 
subject  of  divine  care  and  our  earth  as  the  moral  and 
spiritual  centre  of  the  universe.  The  rank  and  prac- 
tical importance  of  God's  creatures,  or  the  orbs  He 
has  made,  do  not  depend,  they  urge,  on  their  phys- 
ical bigness  or  littleness,  but  on  higher  qualities. 
Though  the  telescope  and  the  magnitudes  it  has  dis- 
closed dwarf  man  to  a  petty  insect,  the  microscope 
gives  back  to  man  his  dignity.  To  the  Almighty  and 
Eternal  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day,  a  day  as  is  a 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  TEE  UNIVERSE  15 

thousand  years,  a  world  like  Sirius  as  a  drop  of  dew, 
and  a  drop  of  dew  as  a  starry  constellation.  Small  as 
man  is,  he  has  within  him  a  knowledge,  reason,  will, 
consciousness  and  creative  power  that  put  him  in  a 
higher  realm  than  any  mass,  however  huge,  of  insen- 
sate matter.  No  globe  of  brute  matter  has  its  reason 
of  existence  in  itself.  The  reason  of  being  in  all 
material  things  lies  outside  them,  in  their  serviceable- 
ness  to  the  spiritual  universe.  That  which  redeems 
sun,  moon  and  stars  from  insignificance  is  simply  that 
they  beautify  and  illuminate  the  planet  in  which  man 
dwells.  We  may  even  question  whether  these  huge 
bubbles  of  matter  have  any  real,  independent  ex- 
istence ?  Many  of  the  ablest  philosophers  have  held 
that  our  very  idea  of  space  and  time  is  relative,  an 
extract  and  product  of  our  conscious  experience,  and 
need  not  imply  any  outward  reality.  These  solid- 
seeming  globes  and  all  their  material  phenomena  are 
but  transitory  shows.  They  are  either  subjective 
illusions  or  shadow  pictures  of  the  divine  will,  pro- 
jected on  to  the  screen  of  space,  to  serve  as  a  theatre 
for  the  training  of  souls  and  the  chastening  of  man's 
ambition ;  or  perhaps  as  mockeries  and  humiliations, 
to  punish  the  presumptuous  reason  of  the  skeptical 
scientists. 

A  theologian  of  the  early  part  of  this  century,  when 
the  discoveries  of  geology  first  threatened  the  his- 
torical accuracy  of  Genesis,  had  the  boldness  and 
keenness  to  explain  the  fossils  in  the  depths  of  the 
earth,  that  seemed  to  prove  that  death  entered  the 
world  before  Adam  was  created,  as  having  been 
stirred  into  the  fluent  substance  of  the  earth  on  the 


16        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

creation-day,  just  to  puzzle  and  discomfit  the  vain- 
glorious geologist.  "  Who  can  prove,"  it  may  sim- 
ilarly be  asked,  "  that  all  these  double  stars  and 
nebulae  and  apparent  magnitudes  of  the  skies  that  the 
conceited  astronomers  use  as  arguments  to  undermine 
the  credibility  of  the  first  three  chapters  of  Genesis, 
are  not  similar  divine  mockeries  and  judgments  on  the 
too  prying  curiosity  and  overconfident  reason  of 
modern  man  ?  "  Who  knows  but  that,  when  God  has 
given  man  his  appointed  probation  on  this  planet,  this 
theatre  of  earth  and  this  phantasmal  scenery  of  the 
skies  will  roll  together  like  a  scroll  and  vanish,  leaving 
only,  to  survive  the  wreck  of  matter  and  the  crush 
of  worlds,  the  indestructible  realm  of  the  spiritual 
world  and  such  souls  as  have  accepted  God's  plan  of 
salvation  ? 

With  such  answering  questions  and  assumptions  are 
all  inferences  from  the  modern  change  of  front  of  the 
universe,  that  would  cast  doubt  on  the  validity  of  the 
older  theologic  systems  and  man's  unique  importance 
in  the  universe,  often  calmly  *waved  aside. 

Which  then  of  these  antagonistic  groups  of  in- 
ferences, drawn  from  the  notable  widening  of  modern 
thought,  may  we  the  more  reasonably  accept  ? 

There  is  a  certain  measure  of  truth  in  each  of  them. 
On  the  one  hand,  the  radical  view  of  modern  material- 
ists as  to  the  transitoriness  and  insignificance  of  hu- 
manity in  our  magnified  universe,  and  the  atheistic 
inferences  supposed  to  be  demanded  by  the  march  of 
modern  science,  are  altogether  too  extreme. 

If  the  whole  universe  be  nothing  but  forms  of  matter 
and  its  motions  and  functions,  then  it  matters  not  how 


TEE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  17 

immense  it  is.  A  million  million  miles  of  it  are  as 
meaningless  and  empty  as  a  single  cubic  yard.  If  the 
human  soul  have  a  real  existence  and  superior  nature, 
then  the  intrinsic  rank  and  capacities  of  the  human 
reason  and  conscience  remain  the  same,  no  matter 
how  many  thousand  times  the  area  of  the  stage  on 
which  it  plays  its  parts  be  stretched  out. 

One  high  intuition  of  eternal  truth,  one  holy  impulse 
of  consecration  or  noble  moral  choice,  is  grander  than 
a  whole  world  of  clay,  more  magnificent  than  the  most 
colossal  galaxy  of  gas  and  dust.  Intricate  as  are  the 
mechanics  of  nature  and  stupendous  as  is  its  bulk,  the 
vision  of  reason  comprehends  the  most  complex 
system.  But  mechanical  nature,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  not  aware  of  its  own  marvels  and  quite  unconscious 
of  its  triumphs.  The  astronomic  world  has  not  ex- 
panded faster  and  cannot  expand  faster  than  man's 
mind  dilates  to  embrace  it  in  his  thought  and  reduce 
it  to  order.  What  we  lose  in  relative  importance 
because  of  the  enlargement  of  the  boundaries  of  the 
universe,  we  recover  from  the  new  revelation  of  man's 
amazing  capacities  that  is  given  through  these  trans- 
cendent achievements  of  human  science. 

The  materialist  would  have  us  bow  our  head  in  de- 
spair because  Sun  and  Sirius  and  the  system  of  the 
Pleiades  are  so  gigantic.  But  when  we  remember 
that  it  is  "  the  mind  of  man  that  has  measured  them 
as  with  a  surveyor's  chain  and  weighed  them  as  if  he 
held  them  in  his  hand,"  is  there  not  in  this  sweep  and 
mystery  of  the  human  intellect  something  too  provo- 
cative of  awe  and  reverence  to  be  repressed  by  any 
lumps  of  earth  however  mammoth  in  size  ?     It  may 


18       THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

be  that  when,  through  the  telescope  of  science,  we 
look  up  at  the  sky,  our  human  stature  seems  to  shrivel 
in  the  most  alarming  fashion.  Yet,  when,  under  the 
optician's  guidance,  we  look  at  the  realms  below  us, 
to  what  giant  size  do  the  dimensions  of  the  human 
frame  again  expand !  If  the  nebulae  of  the  astrono- 
mer belittle  man,  the  bacteria  and  the  atoms  of  the 
microscopist  equally  magnify  him.  A  cubic  inch  of 
Bilin  slate  contains  over  a  billion  of  millions  of  in- 
fusorial shells,  whose  characteristics  are  still  distinct 
enough  for  scientific  identification.  Compared  with 
one  of  these  diminutive  creatures,  man's  bulk  is  as 
large,  proportionately,  as  a  stellar  system  is,  measured 
against  man's  stature;  and  each  corpuscle  that  re- 
volves in  a  drop  of  blood  within  our  veins  may  be  a 
planetary  system  of  spheres  to  which  the  human 
frame  may  be  as  colossal  a  galaxy  as  the  Milky  Way 
appears  to  our  astronomers.  When  we  think  of  the 
exquisite  structure  of  these  infinitesimal  creatures  and 
the  admirable  adjustment  of  their  organs  and  func- 
tions to  the  needs  of  their  life,  (an  adaptation  which  is 
as  perfect  in  a  bacillus  or  vibrio  as  in  a  whale),  may  we 
not  believe  that  the  power  that  provides  so  generously 
for  the  million  inhabitants  of  a  drop  of  water  will  much 
more  take  care  for  man,  no  matter  how  huge  the  con- 
stellations may  be,  under  the  charge  of  His  infinite 
wisdom? 

Science  has  not  diminished  but  multiplied  the 
proofs  of  the  intelligibility  and  rationality  of  the  uni- 
verse. It  has  made  plainer  than  ever  the  fundamental 
likeness  of  the  finite  spirit  that  reads  the  great  stone- 
book  and  the  starry  hieroglyphics,  with  the  Infinite 


TEE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  19 

Spirit  that  has  woven  with  such  intelligence  and  be- 
neficence this  marvelous  web  of  matter  and  force. 

If  the  expansion    of  the  universe  and  the  immu- 
table reign  of  cause  and  effect  through  it  all  have  un- 
dermined  the   old  argument   from  design,  based  on 
the  adaptation  of  special  organs  to  special  requirements 
or  conditions,  it  has  given,  instead  of  this  "  design  by 
retail,"   a  "  design  by  wholesale  "   far  more  majestic. 
It  has  presented  us  with  an  all-embracing  system  of 
planful  reason  and  self-adjusting  development  which 
demands   for  its  inception  and  maintenance  nothing 
less   than   the   constant   life   and   intelligence   of  an 
Omnipresent  spirit.     Modern  science  itself  still  puts 
man  at  the  head  of  the  kingdom  of  life ;  it  holds  him  to 
be  the  climax  of  the  ascending  evolution,  apparently 
its  end  and  goal.     When  we  look  back  on  the  long 
ages  through  which  the  divine  hand,  by  patient  proc- 
ess of  evolution,  was  preparing  for  man's  appearance, 
and  slowly  moulding  him  in  the  womb  of  nature,  till 
at  length  the  great  work  received  its   crown  in  the 
emergence  of  the  self-conscious  mind,  able  and  will- 
ing to  join  hands  and  hasten  onward,  with  unprec- 
edented  rapidity,  the   evolutionary  processes,  lifting 
them  to  higher  levels  of  moral  and  spiritual  unfolding 
than  physical  nature  knows,  does  not  man,  then,  as- 
sume a  higher  dignity  ?     Does  it  not  seem  more  prob- 
able than  ever  before  that  his  Creator  did  not  delve 
and  model  in  the   clay-pits  of  life  for  so  many  long 
ages  merely  to  complete  a  marvelous  automaton,  that 
he   would    send    back   to    inanimate    dust   with   the 
stoppage  of  his  pulse  and  thus  render  vain  all  the  long 
travail  of  the  aeons? 


20        TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

If  it  be  the  great  law  of  science  that  the  fittest 
survive,  that  no  atom  passes  into  nothing,  but  only- 
passes  on  to  new  forms  and  fields  of  activity,  what 
else  in  all  the  ascending  ranks  of  life  is  the  best  and 
fittest  to  survive,  if  not  this  truth-seeking  mind,  this 
conscience,  reverent  of  the  right,  this  soul-personality 
which  knows  itself  an  inseparable  unity,  an  integer 
more  indivisible  than  any  atom,  the  centre  in  which 
all  reasoning,  memory,  comparison  and  judgment  sub- 
sist and  by  which  alone  they  are  possible  ?  Without 
a  continuance  in  existence  of  this  conscious  spirit 
which  is  the  most  consummate  flower  and  essence  of 
the  universe,  that  universe  itself  becomes  a  meaning- 
less chaos  and  ephemeral  force. 

The  materialistic  inferences  which  have  sometimes 
been  drawn  from  the  grand  enlargement  of  the  world, 
effected  by  modern  thought,  are  not,  then,  either 
necessary  or  credible.  The  expansion  of  the  universe 
has  no  endorsement  to  give  to  these  melancholy  theories 
or  that  contempt  for  humanity  which  they  would  foster. 

While  this  is  true,  there  are,  on  the  other  hand, 
very  important  changes  demanded  by  the  recognition 
of  our  magnified  universe.  In  the  new  light  supplied 
by  modern  scientific  discoveries  it  is  impossible  that 
our  theological  conceptions  should  remain  unchanged. 
These  discoveries  require  us  to  modify  very  consider- 
ably the  views  of  God's  government  and  the  nature, 
origin  and  destiny  of  man,  that  were  held  of  old  in 
the  larger  churches.  It  is  true,  of  course,  that  to  the 
divine  eye  our  ideas  of  small  and  great,  of  the  mo- 
mentary and  the  permanent,  may  be  interchangeable. 
Nevertheless,  this  does  not  dismiss  the  notions  of  time 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  21 

and  space  as  mere  subjective  illusions  which  we  need 
not  regard. 

Whatever  be  the  standard  oi'  measurement,  large  or 
small,  there  is  that  relative  position  and  contiguity 
and  varied  direction  that  constitutes  space ;  there  is 
that  inescapable  fact  of  a  before  and  an  after  in  con- 
scious experience  or  successive  motions,  that  con- 
stitutes the  essence  of  time.  And  the  comparative 
magnitudes  and  durations  of  these  conditions  of  space 
and  time  are  not  to  be  ignored  in  any  reasonable  in- 
terpretation of  the  laws  of  the  universe  and  man's  re- 
lations to  the  divine  government. 

Especially  should  it  be  remembered  that  neither 
these  vast  spaces  nor  far  prolonged  periods  that  modern 
science  has  disclosed  are  empty  things.  This  is  the 
correlative  discovery  of  science  everywhere  accom- 
panying every  extension  of  the  universe,  viz. :  that  this 
universe  teems  with  energy  and  change. 

Another  thing  is  equally  to  be  borne  in  mind — that 
all  these  changes  are  orderly  and  harmonious.  The 
laws  of  the  transmutation  of  species,  established  by 
Darwin  and  Wallace,  show  the  unity  of  life.  The 
revelations  of  the  spectroscope  and  the  majestic  laws 
of  the  correlation  of  force  that  Grove  and  Joule  es- 
tablished, proving  that  light,  heat  and  magnetism  are 
all  variants  of  one  another  and  manifestations  of  a 
common  force  behind  them,  all  show  an  essential 
Unity,  running  as  a  scarlet  web  through  the  universe. 
All  these  systems  of  suns  are  under  one  constitution, 
and  the  luminous  matter  in  all  is  substantially  the 
same.  One  ether  extends  through  all  as  the  medium 
of  communication.     One  gravitation  guides  all  in  their 


22        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

orbits.  One  law  of  birth  and  growth  and  heredity 
pushes  the  kingdom  of  life  steadily  upward.  One 
process  of  organization,  continuous  and  alike,  rules 
every  galaxy  and  every  atom.  From  the  diffused  to 
the  compacted,  from  the  lifeless  to  the  living,  from  the 
nebula  to  the  man,  from  lower  to  higher — such  is  the 
eternal  rhythm  of  the  cosmic  evolution. 

Here  in  these  words,  the  cosmic  evolution,  we  have 
named  the  mightiest  change  which  science  has  made 
in  the  last  half-century.  From  the  moment  Galileo's 
opera  glasses  showed  the  phases  of  Venus  this  law 
was  sure  to  be  reached  sooner  or  later.  It  was  from 
that  day  a  predestined  thing  that  the  current  belief  of 
Christendom  of  200  years  ago,  in  which  our  earth  was 
regarded  as  a  scene  of  decay  and  moral  fall  and  con- 
stant supernatural  intervention,  should  suffer  change. 
It  seems  almost  superfluous  to  recall  how  every  birth 
or  death,  every  comet  or  earthquake,  every  unusual 
event,  was  regarded  as  occurring  by  the  special  inter- 
vention of  some  supernatural  agent,  magician  or  saint, 
imp  or  angel,  devil  or  god,  according  to  the  respective 
smallness  or  bigness,  badness  or  goodness,  of  the 
event.  All  this  has  been  ejected  by  science  from  the 
belief  of  enlightened  men  and  women.  Everywhere 
law  is  found  to  reign.  Lily  and  solar  system  are  found 
to  unfold  according  to  one  and  the  same  grand  system. 
The  hallucinations  of  the  senses,  even  the  insane  de- 
lusions, are  found  to  have  their  natural  sources. 

The  world  to-day  is  indeed  found  fuller  than  ever 
of  marvels  ;  but  now  here  can  anything  be  credited  as 
occurring  in  violation  of  law.  No  miracle,  in  the 
sense   of   an   interruption   of   the  universal  order  to 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  23 

benefit  some  favorite  among  the  sons  of  men,  is 
longer  credited.  The  only  miracles  that  even  religion 
to-day  should  know  are  those  wonders,  manifold  and 
mysterious  enough,  that  present  unusual  examples  of 
subtler  and  deeper  laws  than  we  have  as  yet  acquainted 
ourselves  with.  The  greatest  of  miracles  to  every 
thoughtful  mind  is  that  God's  forethought  and  uni- 
versal plans  have  been  so  perfect,  from  the  first  day 
that  the  morning  stars  sang  together,  that  no  subse- 
quent interference  has  been  needed  to  rectify  any  de- 
fects. The  astonishing  freaks  of  power  or  super- 
natural signs  of  a  celestial  mission,  of  which  the  older 
theology  made  so  much,  have  therefore  lost  credence, 
and  all  the  witches,  imps  and  devils  of  the  olden  time 
have  vanished  before  this  confidence  in  nature's  un- 
changing orderliness,  like  the  shadows  of  a  hideous 
night. 

When  there  is  no  longer  any  up  or  down,  nor  cav- 
ernous abode  of  shades  beneath  the  earth,  and  when 
the  azure  dome  of  crystal,  above  which  God  held  His 
court,  has  been  dissipated  into  interstellar  ether,  such 
wonders  as  the  descent  of  Christ  into  hell  or  His  as- 
cent to  heaven  to  sit  on  God's  right  hand  have  had  to 
be  turned  into  allegories,  even  if  they  do  stand  in  the 
Apostles'  creed.  As  man  has  been  found  to  be  not 
the  victim  of  a  fall,  the  ruin  of  a  once  perfect  being, 
but  an  ascending  spirit,  "  slowly  climbing  with  the 
climbing  world"  out  of  early  animaHty  to  his  des- 
tined inheritance  as  a  child  of  God,  so  the  old  doc- 
trines of  total  depravity  and  the  need  of  a  vicarious 
atoner  to  pay  for  the  sin  of  man's  federal  head,  Adam, 
have  passed  away.     The  perfect  man  in  our  modern 


24       TEE  NEW  WOBLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

thought  is  not  behind  us  but  before  us.  The  theologic 
scheme,  by  which  God  the  Father  sacrificed  His  only- 
begotten  Son  to  snatch  mankind  out  of  the  clutches 
of  Satan  on  one  of  the  myriad  specks  that  dot  the 
celestial  ocean  of  space,  appears,  in  the  light  of  the 
modern  expansion  of  the  universe,  as  the  most  obvious 
relic  of  the  infancy  of  thought.  It  is  a  conception  of  the 
world,  long  ago  outgrown. 

Humanity  has  had  not  merely  one  Saviour,  but  a 
thousand,  each  doing  his  part,  great  or  small,  in  re- 
generating mankind.  God  did  more  than  incarnate 
Himself  in  Jesus.  He  has  incarnated  Himself  in  all 
humanity  in  proportion  to  the  spiritual  receptivity  of 
each ;  and  every  true  and  disinterested  soul,  every 
martyr  for  truth  and  justice  who  has  surrendered  his 
life  to  uplift  the  world  or  ease  a  brother's  woe,  has  had 
his  glorious  participation  in  that  red  blood  of  sacrifice 
that  slowly  redeems  our  race  from  its  ancient  sins  and 
inveterate  diseases. 

The  beginning  of  the  soul  on  earth  and  its  exit  and 
future  career  must  take  place  by  general  law.  The 
origin  of  the  soul  will  henceforth  be  conceived  less  as 
a  special  creation  than  as  a  creative  specialization  of 
the  universal  life,  an  individualization  of  the  indwelling 
divine  Spirit  in  a  personal  form  and  consciousness. 
The  immortality  of  the  soul,  if  it  is  to  be  credited  in 
the  twentieth  century,  must  no  longer  be  represented 
as  a  miraculous  gift  to  a  few  elect  individuals,  a  super- 
natural regathering  and  reanimation  of  bodily  sub- 
stances and  atoms,  long  since  scattered  but  flying 
together  at  the  sound  of  a  trumpet.  On  the  contrary, 
it  must  be  regarded  as  a  universal  and  regular  process, 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  25 

the  natural  release,  at  the  time  of  the  body's  decay, 
of  a  soul  too  vital,  too  unitary  and  too  subtle  to  be 
involved  in  the  dissolution  of  its  clayey  tabernacle. 
Immortality  must  be  found  to  be  a  process  in  strict 
harmony  with  a  rational  universe,  the  only  rational 
outcome  of  the  universe  as  it  unfolds  to  its  higher 
consummation.  If  man's  soul  is  immortal,  its  salva- 
tion must  be  under  universal  laws,  not  a  thing  due  to 
the  accident  of  birth  in  a  Christian  nation  or  the  visit 
of  some  missionary  with  a  Bible  or  the  presence  of  a 
priest  with  drops  of  holy  water.  The  doors  of  possi- 
ble immortality  must  be  as  wide  open  in  China  or  Ja- 
pan as  in  New  York  or  London, — nay,  as  wide  open 
in  Mars  or  any  of  the  satellites  of  Sirius,  if  conscious 
life  has  yet  evolved  on  any  of  these  bodies,  as  it  was 
in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  in  the  first  century  of  our 
era.  When  we  think  of  the  millions  of  globes,  where 
the  same  laws  of  evolution  are  going  on  and  have 
gone  on  for  aeons  as  here,  can  we  credit  it  that  it  is 
to  our  own  little  planet  that  the  saving  mercy  of  God 
has  been  confined  ?  Not  alone  to  our  earth  and  in 
the  flesh  of  its  humanity  has  the  love  of  God  been 
manifested  and  incarnated,  but  also,  I  Hke  to  think,  to 
every  part  of  the  cosmos  where  souls  have  come  to 
need  it,  in  every  abode  of  planetary  and  stellar  so- 
ciety. As  evil  is  no  longer  to  be  thought  due  to  the 
malign  influence  of  an  apple-bite,  or  the  weakness  of 
a  woman,  but  as  an  incident  of  that  government  by 
fixed  law  and  that  option  of  free-will  that  everywhere 
prevails  in  the  universe,  so  every  embodied  life  of  the 
soul  is  a  training  in  spiritual  strength  and  upbuilding 
to  the  fuller  character  of  a  mature  moral  nature. 


26        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  TEE  NEW  THOUGHT 

"  The  divine  judgment  is  not  a  cleaving  asunder 
of  the  blue  dome  for  the  descent  of  angelic  squadrons, 
headed  by  the  majestic  Son  of  God,  the  angry  breath 
of  His  mouth  consuming  the  wicked,"  as  theologians 
have  pictured  it ;  it  is  no  spectacular  drama  of  retri- 
bution, winding  up  the  scroll  of  the  ages  with  sudden 
afterclap  of  retribution ;  but  it  is  the  constant  self- 
working  of  an  inherent  law,  assimilating  us  more  and 
more  to  that  infernal  or  celestial  love  to  which  we 
have  given  our  hearts. 

All  the  punishments  of  the  soul  are  means  of  dis- 
cipline and  growth  ;  all  its  heavenly  promotions  are 
rewards  of  spiritual  desert  and  fitness.  Death  is  but 
an  incident  and  a  necessary  incident  of  the  onward 
progress  of  the  spirit.  So,  also,  the  conception  of  the 
departed  soul  as  being  conducted  and  shut  up  in  cer- 
tain localities,  above  or  below,  in  heavenly  courts  or 
infernal  pits,  seems  a  relic  of  this  older  geocentric 
view  of  the  universe,  which  no  mind  familiar  with  the 
heliocentric  structure  of  the  heavens  can  very  well 
hold.  Modern  thought  conceives  of  the  disembodied 
soul,  rather,  as  possessed  of  the  freedom  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  carrying  its  own  heaven  and  hell  within  its 
happy  or  remorseful  consciousness. 

In  the  soul's  life  after  death,  as  before  death,  its 
natural  course  is  a  continued  ascent.  We  enter  the 
spirit  world,  the  wisest  of  us,  as  mere  infants  in  spir- 
itual power,  to  go  onward,  by  varied  experiences, 
perhaps  through  many  rebirths,  to  the  youth  and  full 
maturity  of  spiritual  character.  The  infinity  of  worlds 
and  the  measureless  eternities  of  time  and  varied  con- 
ditions of  existence,  that  modern  knowledge  exhibits, 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  27 

seem  to  me  to  harmonize  little  with  the  popular 
notion  that  this  earthly  life  is  the  only  probation  time 
of  the  human  soul.  The  enormity  and  disproportion 
of  the  penalty  for  him  who  fails  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  the  current  scheme  of  salvation  seem  too 
great  to  be  credible.  The  wisest  of  men  are  but  little 
children,  the  longest  earthly  life  a  mere  tick  of  the 
pendulum  of  eternity.  The  aeons  of  that  eternity 
belong  to  a  Father  who  rejoiceth  more  over  one  sin- 
ner that  repenteth  than  over  ninety -and-nine  that  have 
never  gone  astray ;  and  I  fondly  dream  that  He  will 
try,  through  failure  after  failure  and  effort  after  effort, 
to  crown  with  success  every  case  of  soul-training  He 
has  ever  begun ;  and  His  almighty  power  and  unceas- 
ing love  will  not  in  the  end  be  defeated  by  the  crea- 
ture He  has  made.  Each  soul  that  begins  to  live 
enters  on  a  pilgrimage  whose  length  can  be  measured 
by  no  clock  but  that  of  eternity.  Divine  spark,  as  the 
human  spirit  is,  proceeding  from  the  bosom  of  the 
Divine,  there  is  none  so  degraded  that,  in  the  course 
of  time,  in  the  endless  opportunities  of  the  future, 
he  cannot  rise  to  the  level  of  his  heavenly  destiny. 
"  I  do  not  care,"  as  a  friend  of  mine  has  said,  "  if 
it  takes  several  solar  systems  to  do  it  The  soul  can 
wear  out  solar  systems  as  we  wear  out  coats." 

The  whole  universe  is  God's  home,  and  the  vastest 
constellations  but  a  corner  or  two  in  the  many  man- 
sions of  the  hospitable  and  everlasting  sanctuary. 
Everywhere,  through  its  unending  aisles,  the  Divine 
Life  pulses  and  the  unswerving  Love  cares  for  all 
His  children.  Steadily  upward  and  onward  they  are 
conducted,   by  salutary  experiences,    from    room   to 


28        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

room,  from  realm  to  realm ;  and  these  huge  spaces 
and  dots  of  flame  and  molten  or  out-burned  balls  of 
fire  that,  to  the  materialist,  seem  such  a  dreary  and 
meaningless  tomb,  are,  to  the  eye  of  faith,  a  grand 
and  systematic  university  of  souls,  class  above  class 
and  hall  enclosing  hall — all  its  courts  bright  with 
growing  revelations,  fragrant  with  unwearying  love 
and  tremulous  with  the  breath  and  sympathy  of  the 
omnipresent,  indweUing  God. 

It  has  been  charged  that  the  reconstructions  which 
modern  inquiry  have  made  diminish  reverence,  foster 
skepticism  and  are  inimical  to  reHgion.  But  for  faith 
to  be  panic-struck  because  this  earth  of  ours  has 
shriveled  to  the  minuteness  of  a  mustard  seed  is  a 
most  unreasonable  alarm.  So  much  more  glorious  this 
cosmic  Igdrasil,  on  whose  stem  of  life  this  mustard  seed 
is  borne  aloft !  So  much  more  adorable  the  Divine 
Fulness  that  spread  out  these  teeming  fields,  whose 
centre  is  everywhere  and  circumference  nowhere ! 

Yes,  immensely  more  glorious ;  unless,  forsooth,  you 
fancy  these  titan  dimensions  an*d  myriad  processes  too 
great  a  task  for  any  mind  or  personality,  even  that 
of  the  Infinite,  to  direct  or  order.  "  How,  then,"  as 
Martineau  asks,  **  has  your  mind,  as  learner,  managed 
to  measure  and  know  it,  at  least  enough  to  think  it  to 
be  something  beyond  thought  ?  " 

And  if  it  is  too  great  a  task  for  conscious  mind — 
the  highest  faculty  we  know, — too  great  even  for  a 
mind  of  divine  compass  to  order  and  superintend  it, 
then  how  much  more  is  it  beyond  the  possibilities  of 
anything  else  to  account  for  that  wonderful  harmony 
which  the  cosmos  so  plainly  exhibits  ! 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  29 

The  fact  is  that  these  reconstructions  of  modern 
science  do  not  touch  the  substance  of  rehgion.  They 
only  shift  its  forms  and  really  enlarge  its  sway  and 
dignity.  Put  the  case  we  have  been  discussing 
squarely  before  any  intelligent  Christian,  so  that  he 
can  see  its  full  significance,  and  who  would  prefer  to 
go  back  to  the  cosmic  baby-house  of  Cosmas  Indi- 
copleustes  and  Thomas  Aquinas  ?  Who  would  vault 
in  again  the  immensity  of  space  to  restore  Dante's 
little  heaven  ?  Who  would  cut  down  to  six  ordinary 
evenings  and  mornings  the  activity  of  Him  who  in- 
habiteth  eternity  and  has  been  forever  at  His  work  of 
evolution  ?  Who  would  relinquish  the  confidence  and 
hope  inspired  by  the  unswerving  progress  of  that 
single  divine  purpose  that  Hnks  the  ages  together  ? 

For,  whatever  science  has  wrenched  from  the  hand 
of  faith,  she  has  given  her  back  triple  and  quadruple 
gifts.  The  vigorous  probing  that  science  has  brought 
to  nature  has  not  removed  any  of  its  wonderfulness, 
any  of  its  perfections,  has  not  in  any  way  robbed 
man  of  his  highest  hopes  or  lessened  his  dignity ;  but 
it  has  disclosed  new  marvels  behind  those  that  first 
struck  man's  attention ;  it  has  made  the  universe  more 
august  and  yet  more  homelike.  It  has  not  emptied 
the  world  of  spiritual  force,  but  filled  it  with  the 
presence  of  one  All-inclusive  Wisdom,  one  Infinite 
Power  and  Eternal  Love,  from  the  firm  yet  tender 
embrace  of  whose  perfect  order  we  can  never  fall. 

**  That  God  which  ever  lives  and  loves, 
One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 
And  one  far-oft"  divine  event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   SANCTION    FOR    MORALITY    IN   NATURE. 

The  old  proverb  calls  it  "  an  ill  wind  that  blows 
nobody  good."  Conversely,  there  are  few  good  winds 
that  do  not,  at  first,  or  in  certain  ways,  blow  ill  to 
somebody.  Every  fertilizing  shower  interrupts  some 
one's  promenade,  or  spoils  somebody's  hat.  Every 
new  and  better  road  pulls  down  somebody's  fence. 
So  the  reconstruction  of  thought  and  faith  which  the 
progress  of  modern  knowledge  has  made,  beneficent 
as  it  has  been,  has  caused  great  perplexity  to  many 
minds,  and  set  not  a  few  quite  adrift  on  a  shoreless 
sea  of  doubt.  In  the  turmoil  of  opinions  not  only 
hollow  traditions  and  baseless  credulities  have  been 
assailed,  but  also  the  most  legitimate  authorities.  Those 
naturally  skeptical  or  iconoclastic,  use  the  new  dis- 
coveries as  clubs  to  batter  down  the  best  established 
principles  of  morality  and  religion.  A  conspicuous 
recent  sufferer  from  this  tendency  is  the  great  law  of 
Evolution,  which  the  labors  of  Darwin  and  Spencer, 
Wallace  and  Romanes  have  so  strongly  confirmed. 

The  four  great  facts  on  which  the  law  of  evolution 
rests  are  very  simple.  Living  creatures,  in  the  first 
place,  multiply  so  fast  that  there  would  be  neither 
food  nor  room  for  more  than  a  small  part,  were  all  to 
survive.  Secondly,  every  living  thing  born  into  the 
world  varies  slightly  from  every  other.  Thirdly,  all 
30 


THE  SANCTION  FOB  3I0RALITY  IN  NATURE        31 

living  beings  inherit,  more  or  less,  the  peculiarities  of 
their  parents.  In  the  fourth  place,  the  selection  of 
those  that  survive  is  determined  by  their  fitness  to 
meet  the  struggle  for  existence,  or  to  please  their 
mates.  These  four  facts  appear,  to  scientific  minds, 
no  less  evident  and  elementary  than  innocent  in  their 
bearings  and  august  in  their  monitions. 

But  when  the  popular  mind,  hearing  that  these  are 
now  accepted  truths  of  modern  knowledge,  begins  to 
handle  and  apply  them  to  daily  life,  what  are  its 
practical  deductions  ?  To  our  surprise  we  find  it  in- 
ferred that  evolution  is  a  process  where  merciless  com- 
petition and  cruelty  are  the  honored  rule,  that  nature 
is  a  field  where  every  creature  struggles,  and  must 
struggle,  for  himself  alone;  that,  therefore,  such 
struggle  is  properly  the  rule  to-day ;  that  might  is  the 
only  right  which  nature  knows,  and  that  the  weak  go 
to  the  wall,  where  they  had  better  go. 

It  is  not  the  ignorant  only  who  adopt  these  con- 
clusions, but  also  learned  savants  who  have  been 
prominent  advocates  of  the  evolution  theory.  One 
of  its  American  champions,  Mr.  Van  Buren  Denslow, 
some  years  ago,  rebuking  Mr.  Spencer  for  not  carry- 
ing out  to  its  logical  result  the  teachings  of  the 
doctrine  of  development,  maintained  that  moral  rules 
are  merely  "  doctrines  established  by  the  strong  for 
the  government  of  the  weak.  The  prompting  to  steal 
and  He  is  as  much  a  prompting  of  nature  with  the 
weak,  as  the  commandments  prohibiting  those  acts 
are  naturally  urged  on  the  weak  by  the  stronger  ones, 
who  wish  to  keep  the  weak  in  subjection." 

Similarly,  the  German  philosopher,  Nietzsche,  in  his 


32        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

"  Zur  Genealogie  der  Moral,"  traces  the  genesis  of 
present  morality  in  the  following  manner :  At  the 
beginning  of  civilization,  "  a  herd  of  blond  beasts  of 
prey,  free  from  every  social  restraint,  ranged  about, 
exulting  in  murder,  rapine,  torture,  and  incendiarism, 
and  made  slaves  of  the  lower  races."  Their  own 
qualities,  cruelty,  pride,  joy  in  danger,  and  extreme 
unscrupulousness  (to-day  reckoned  bad  qualities) — 
were  then  the  good  qualities.  Their  slaves  and  sub- 
jects naturally  abhorred  these  quaHties  of  their  op- 
pressors, and  gave  the  place  of  honor  to  those  qualities 
that  ameHorated  their  own  sufferings, — pity,  self- 
sacrifice,  patience,  diligence,  and  friendliness.  When, 
at  length,  this  slave-morality,  through  the  victory  of 
Christianity  and  democracy,  got  the  upper  hand,  the 
primitive  morality  was  inverted ;  the  naturally  bad 
qualities  were  regarded  as  good,  and  the  native  in- 
stincts of  man  that  incite  to  selfishness  and  cruelty 
were  condemned  as  evil.  Although  Nietzsche's  theory 
of  the  origin  of  the  virtues  is  quite  opposite  to  that  of 
Mr.  Denslow,  he  agrees  with  him  in  considering  morals 
not  as  universal  laws,  but  as  the  edicts  and  utilities  of 
a  class. 

Equally  surprising,  were  the  declarations  of 
Professor  Huxley  in  his  last  volume  of  collected 
essays,  *'  Evolution  and  Ethics,"  in  which  his 
singular  Romanes  Lecture  was  still  further  cham- 
pioned and  given  a  permanent  place  among  his 
works.  After  painting  in  the  blackest  of  colors  the 
injustice  of  the  world,  and  roundly  scoring  the  un- 
moral character  of  the  cosmic  order,  he  appeals  to  the 
logic   of  facts   as   proving  that  "  the  cosmos  works 


THE  SANCTION  FOB  MORALITY  IN  NATURE        33 

through  the  lower  nature  of  man,  not  for  righteous- 
ness, but  against  it."  With  especial  severity  he  criti- 
cises the  fallacies,  as  he  would  brand  them,  of  evo- 
lution. As  the  unmoral  sentiments  have  been  evolved, 
no  less  than  the  moral,  "  there  is,  so  far,  as  much 
natural  sanction  for  the  one  as  for  the  other."  "  The 
thief  and  the  murderer,"  he  bluntly  says,  "  follow 
nature  as  much  as  the  philanthropist."  Cosmic  evo- 
lution is  "  incompetent  to  furnish  any  better  reason 
why  what  we  call  good  is  preferable  to  what  we  call 
evil  than  we  had  before."  Professor  Huxley  contends 
that  "  for  man's  successful  progress  as  far  as  the  savage 
state,  he  has  been  largely  indebted  to  those  qualities 
which  he  shares  with  the  ape  and  the  tiger."  But 
with  the  changed  conditions  of  man's  later  life,  these 
serviceable  quaHties  of  the  earlier  time  have  become 
defects.  *'  CiviHzed  man  would  gladly  kick  down  the 
ladder  by  which  he  has  chmbed.  In  fact,  civilized 
man  brands  all  these  ape  and  tiger  promptings  with 
the  name  of  sins.  He  punishes  many  of  the  acts 
which  flow  from  them  as  crimes,  and  in  extreme  cases 
he  does  his  best  to  put  an  end  to  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  of  former  days  by  axe  and  rope."  "  The  cosmic 
progress  has  no  sort  of  relation  to  moral  ends."  "  The 
imitation  of  it  by  man  is  inconsistent  with  the  first 
principles  of  ethics." 

The  ethical  progress  of  society  to-day.  Professor 
Huxley  concludes,  "  depends  not  on  imitating  the 
cosmic  progress,  still  less  in  running  away  from  it, 
but  in  combating  it."  The  microcosm  should  pit 
itself  against  the  macrocosm,  and  "social  progress 
means  a  checking  of  the  cosmic  progress  at  every  step 


34        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

and  the  substitution  for  it  of  another  which  may  be 
called  the  ethical  progress." 

Such,  in  substance,  is  the  string  of  pyrotechnical 
paradoxes  through  which  the  eminent  English  Evo- 
lutionist gave  the  scientific  and  philosophic  world 
as  lively  a  shock  as  it  has  for  a  long  time  experi- 
enced. 

Have  nature  and  evolution,  then,  no  sanction  for 
morality?  What  are  we  to  think  of  these  modern 
Jeremiads  of  certain  evolutionists,  which  seem  to  come, 
now  from  the  lips  of  a  resurrected  Schopenhauer,  now 
from  those  of  a  third  century  Manichsean,  and  which 
have  made  all  the  old-time  dualists  and  supernaturalists 
ask  with  wondering  glee,  "  Is  Saul,  also,  among  the 
prophets  ?  " 

The  question  has  very  important  bearings.  For, 
if  morals  and  nature  be  in  antagonism ;  if  evolution  be 
a  process  whose  law  is  selfishness  and  cruelty,  or  at 
least  without  sanction  for  righteousness  and  helpful- 
ness, then,  both  the  cause  of  evolution  and  that  of 
rational  ethics  are  weighted  with  grave  objections ; 
and  advanced  science  joins  its  voice  with  ancient 
dogmatism  in  declaring  the  world  a  realm  divided 
against  itself. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  can  find  our  ethical 
instincts  rooted  in  the  whole  realm  of  vital  nature,  and 
developed  step  by  step  with  the  ascent  of  life,  then 
science  and  faith  will  be  harmonized,  and  we  shall  see 
that  the  fundamental  verities  and  duties  are  right,  not 
simply  because  revelation  or  intuition  has  taught 
them,  but  that  they  have  been  taught  because  the  ex- 
perience of  the  world  has  shown  them  to  be  right, 


THE  SANCTION  FOB  MORALITY  IN  NATURE         35 

and  the  irresistible  instincts  of  our  vital  being  proclaim 
them  afresh  in  every  succeeding  generation. 

Professor  Huxley  and  the  other  critics  who  would 
stigmatize  evolution  as  a  cruel  and  selfish  process,  and 
who  like  to  describe  the  world  as  a  vast  battle-field, 
where  the  carnage  goes  on  without  cessation,  and  the 
weak  are  systematically  left  at  the  mercy  of  the  strong, 
make  the  error  of  bisecting  nature.  They  drop  out 
of  view  the  better  and  larger  half  of  it,  the  end  and 
consummation  of  the  process,  and  then  condemn  the 
whole  because  of  their  own  partial  observation.  They 
are  like  a  man  who  should  cut  an  apple-tree  in  two  at 
the  trunk,  and  then  blame  the  roots  because  they  bore 
no  fruit.  The  process  of  evolution  should  be  judged, 
not  by  its  roots,  by  what  appears  in  its  lower,  rudi- 
mentary forms  and  crude  beginnings,  but  by  its  whole 
sweep  and  final  outcome.  It  is  the  mature  form,  most 
of  all,  that  presents  the  characteristic  genius  of  plant 
and  animal.  The  real  nature  of  an  oak-tree  is  not 
best  discerned  in  the  folded  cotyledons,  or  the  initial 
swellings  of  the  acorn,  or  the  rootlets  that  first  push 
out  from  the  shell.  Acorn  and  rootlets  are  but  parts 
and  expressions  of  that  evolutive  potentiality,  that 
generic  idea,  which  is  only  to  be  completely  under- 
stood when  we  gaze  at  the  full-grown  monarch  of  the 
forest. 

So,  to  discern  the  real  character  of  the  cosmic  evo- 
lution and  the  authentic  teachings  of  nature,  we 
should  not  separate  the  inorganic  realm  from  the 
organic,  nor  the  animal  from  the  human  plane  of 
development,  nor  hold  up  the  brutal  warfare  of  the 
carnivora    and    the  ravin  and  ruin  of  the  competing 


36        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

rivals  of  the  Saurian  ages  as  exemplifications  of 
nature's  character  and  lessons.  We  must  recognize 
the  animal  and  the  human  species  as  parts  of  one 
divine  system,  the  end  and  fruit  of  which  are  even 
more  significant  than  its  crude  beginnings.  In  the 
highest  moral  and  spiritual  forms  and  forces  attained 
in  the  process  of  evolution,  we  should  recognize  the 
ampler  and  clearer  manifestations  of  that  vital  spirit 
and  divine  power  which  works  and  unfolds  itself 
through  all  the  varied  levels  of  creation.  If  civiliza- 
tion and  science  and  human  morality  really  constitute 
an  "  artificial  world,"  as  Professor  Huxley  asks  us  to 
believe,  "  antagonistic  to  the  general  constitution  of 
the  universe,"  how  can  we  look  for  anything  but 
defeat  when  the  microcosm  pits  itself  against  the 
macrocosm  ?  How,  indeed,  could  the  higher  Hfe  of 
humanity  ever  have  won  a  victory  or  reached  the  ele- 
vation that  it  has  attained  ? 

The  contrary  position  is  evident.  Precisely  because 
human  science  and  morality  have  been  in  harmony 
and  alliance  with  the  secret  laws  and  higher  forces  of 
the  universe,  they  have  made  the  progress  that  we 
know. 

The  term  nature,  properly  used,  means  the  whole 
of  creation,  not  its  lower  half;  and  the  great  victory 
of  modern  science  has  been  precisely  to  show  that 
man  is  as  much  a  part  of  nature  and  under  nature's 
laws  as  the  vegetable  or  the  animal  kingdom.  If 
humanity  and  human  life  are  not  a  part  of  nature, 
then  the  laborious  researches  and  boasted  achieve- 
ments of  Darwin,  Spencer,  and  Romanes  have  gone 
for  naught.     If  humanity  and  human  life,  on  the  other 


THE  SANCTION  FOB  BIORALITY  IN  NATURE        37 

hand,  are  constituent  parts  of  nature,  nature's  teach- 
ings are  to  be  found,  not  simply  in  the  fiery  volcano  or 
the  devouring  leopard,  but  also  in  the  generous  hand 
that  rescues  from  danger,  and  the  pitying  care  that 
binds  and  heals  the  sufferer's  wounds.  Animal  evo- 
lution culminates  in  human  evolution,  and  human 
evolution  culminates  in  the  unfolding  and  perfection 
of  the  spiritual  nature.  As  the  end  and  fruit  is  indis- 
putably moral,  by  what  logic  shall  we  declare  that  the 
process  and  law  are  devoid  of  ethical  import  ? 

In  the  next  place  it  is  worthy  of  notice,  and  a  most 
proper  plea  in  mitigation  of  the  charges  made,  that  those 
parts  and  actions  in  nature,  which  are  most  criticised  as 
evil,  are  never  ends  in  themselves,  but  merely  means 
and  intermediate  steps  to  the  goal  of  good.  This  fierce 
competition  in  the  multitude  of  living  beings  ;  this  de- 
vouring of  insect  by  bird  and  mouse,  and  destruction  of 
bird  and  mouse  by  cat  and  hawk,  and  the  wiping  out 
of  the  species  unfitted  to  maintain  themselves  in  the 
painful  struggle, — each  of  these  processes  is  useful  to 
the  higher  ends  towards  which  the  current  of  Hfe 
moves.  It  is  this  that  fills  each  nook  with  life,  makes 
the  mole  conquer  the  underworld  of  the  ground  and 
the  bird  the  realm  of  air,  and  makes  each  living 
species  strive  and  develop  itself  to  the  utmost.  It  is 
this  that  sharpens  the  eyes  of  the  lynx  and  the  hear- 
ing of  the  deer,  and  gives  swiftness  to  the  antelope  and 
the  horse.  It  is  this  that  moulds  dull  sensation  into 
these  varied  and  marvelous  instincts  of  bee  and  moth, 
and,  as  the  struggle  goes  on,  leads  rigid  instinct  up  to 
flexile  cunning  and  adaptive  intelligence ;  and,  among 
the  higher  animals,  develops  in  each  race,  according 


38        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

to  its  peculiar  dangers  or  opportunities,  emotions  of 
fidelity  or  sympathy,  faculties  of  memory  or  attention, 
of  song  or  reason ;  and  in  man,  at  length,  constitutes 
mind  and  conscience  the  controlling  powers,  and 
makes  success  in  the  battle  of  life  the  prize  of  courage, 
perseverance,  mutual  devotion,  and  self-sacrifice.  Al- 
though on  the  lower  levels  the  stern  law  of  natural 
selection  produces  the  grasping  parasite  and  the  vo- 
racious reptile,  and  in  the  early  stages  gives  the  ad- 
vantage to  the  hard  and  selfish,  yet,  as  the  evolution 
continues,  this  very"  Moloch  of  natural  selection,"  as  it 
has  been  called,  refines  and  elevates  its  products  age 
by  age.  It  annihilates  the  ferocious  monsters  of  the 
reptilian  age  ;  it  reduces  the  barnacle  to  immobility;  it 
makes  the  slave-holding  ant  helpless  and  the  human 
slave  owner  a  fossil  of  the  past.  It  breeds  out  of  the 
ferocious  wolf-tribe  the  affectionate  and  devoted  dog, 
and  allows  no  people  to  survive  unless  that  people 
makes  justice  and  neighborly  assistance  and  good-will 
the  recognized  laws  of  its  national  life.  Each  layer  of 
olden  slime  and  blood  is  a  fertilizing  alluvium  which 
produces  the  later  glory  of  spiritual  blossom  and  of 
righteous,  kindly  fruit. 

Moreover,  a  closer  study  of  nature  shows  even  more 
than  this.  It  shows  that,  even  in  the  lower  and  rudi- 
mentary stages  of  life,  there  is  an  altruism  contem- 
poraneous with  the  egoism  of  evolution.  There  is 
"  a  struggle  for  others,"  as  Professor  Drummond  has 
well  phrased  it,  conjoined  with  the  struggle  for  self, 
constantly  restraining  selfishness,  often  dominant  over 
it  even  in  low  ranks  of  life,  and  in  the  larger  and  higher 
families  of  the  natural  kingdom  always  preponderant. 


,THE  SANCTION  FOR  MORALITY  IN  NATURE        39 

A  superficial  acquaintance  with  the  facts  of  evolu- 
tion brings  out  as  its  prominent  features  such  traits  as 
struggle,  selfishness  and  cruelty.  But  a  deeper  and 
keener  study  shows  that  from  the  outset  of  life  there 
have  been  principles  of  super-fecundity  and  overflow 
present,  and  there  have  been  instincts  of  solidarity 
and  sympathy  involved  that  irresistibly  carry  the 
individual  beyond  the  circle  of  his  own  interests. 
In  the  simplest  cell  which,  in  obedience  to  the 
expansive  tendency  of  life,  splits  into  two,  or 
forms,  with  its  excess  of  protoplasm,  the  nucleus 
of  a  new  cell,  the  philosophic  eye  beholds  the 
germ  of  the  moral  law  and  the  promise  of  the  beati- 
tudes. Wherever  vitality  is  at  its  best,  it  is  character- 
ized by  a  constant  overplus  of  production  beyond  the 
needs  of  self-maintenance,  and  therefore  an  overflow 
of  the  fountain  of  being  that  carries  its  current  beyond 
the  bounds  of  self  and  commingles  the  waters  of  life. 
Altruistic  giving  is  the  inseparable  correlate  of  this 
vital  over-production.  A  certain  disinterestedness  and 
outgoing  of  largess  and  sympathy  is  as  characteristic  of 
healthy  life  as  for  the  mother  of  a  new-born  babe  to  give 
her  milk  to  the  babe.  In  the  sacred  unity  and  natural 
bond  that  keeps  the  ocean  in  its  bed  and  holds  the  parent 
sheep  to  the  duty  of  suckhng  her  helpless  lambkin,  we 
see  the  germ  of  that  moral  necessity  that  blossoms  in 
a  Socrates'  conscience  or  a  Christ's  self-sacrifice. 

Professor  Huxley  presents  the  cosmic  struggle  for 
existence  as  demanding  the  opposite  conduct  from 
goodness  and  virtue:  not  self-restraint,  but  ruthless 
self-assertion,  and  the  characteristic  quaHties  of  ape 
and  tiger.     By  this  he  must  mean,  if  his  argument  is 


40        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

to  be  effective,  such  qualities  as  those  of  cruelty, 
voracity,  thievery,  and  wantonness.  On  the  contrary, 
even  the  tiger's  survival  and  success  demanded  from 
him  self-restraint  and  care  for  others.  Had  this  self- 
assertion  and  devouring  appetite  been  indeed  *'  ruth- 
less," and  not  checked  themselves  in  the  presence  of 
his  mate  and  his  cubs  and  been  ready  to  share  his 
booty  with  them,  his  line  would  have  perished  with 
the  first  generation.  Did  the  apes  not  associate  them- 
selves in  bands,  combining  their  forces  for  mutual  as- 
sistance and  defense,  how  could  this  species  of  crea- 
ture, so  comparatively  weak  physically,  destitute  of 
tusks,  fangs,  horns,  or  armor,  have  sustained  itself 
against  its  far  more  powerful  enemies?  It  is  not 
merely  in  the  human  species,  but  also  throughout  the 
whole  realm  of  life  below,  that  altruism  and  social 
bonds  manifest  themselves  ;  self-will  at  due  times  and 
occasions  represses  itself;  and  if  it  will  not  voluntarily 
yield  and  curb  its  excesses,  then  it  is  sternly  enforced 
to  do  so  by  an  inexorable  Nemesis. 

Foremost  among  these  factors  that  enforce  co- 
operation and  more  or  less  of  altruism,  are  those  cen- 
tral facts  in  the  animal  kingdom,  sex  and  infant  weak- 
ness. Above  the  very  lowest  orders  of  existence,  no 
animal  and  few  of  the  higher  plants  can  reproduce 
their  species  without  a  mate,  nor  can  the  young  sur- 
vive without  parental  care.  Reproduction  is  no  less 
fundamental  to  life  than  nutrition.  And  if  the  neces- 
sity of  feeding  themselves  is  the  sure  producer  of 
egoism  in  all  forms  of  flesh  and  blood,  the  necessity 
of  pleasing  their  mates  and  taking  care  of  their  young 
just  as  surely  fosters  altruism. 


THE  SANCTION  FOB  MORALITY  IN  NATURE        41 

Of  course  we  should  not  attribute  to  the  animal 
mother  the  same  affection  and  conscious  self-denial 
that  characterize  a  human  mother.  But  throughout 
every  realm  of  natural  history,  above  the  microscopic, 
there  are  instincts  that  carry  the  individual  beyond 
his  own  needs,  and  often  quite  contrary  to  his  own 
ease,  comfort,  and  self-preservation ;  because  they  are 
demanded  by  the  race.  The  universal  conditions  of 
reproduction,  are,  first,  giving ;  and,  next,  self-sacrifice. 
See,  in  the  case  of  the  flowers,  how  the  anther  gives 
to  the  stigma  the  fertilizing  pollen  that  through  micro- 
scopic gateways  penetrates  to  the  inmost  heart  of  the 
pistil ;  how,  with  the  first  beginning  of  the  seed,  the 
petals  begin  to  wither,  turning  into  the  germs  the  sap 
on  which  they  might  have  lived,  and  packing  around 
each  tiny  germ  the  stores  of  starch  and  albumen 
which  shall  feed  their  hunger  when  the  sun  calls  them 
forth  to  life  with  the  spring.  "  Every  flower  in  the 
world,"  Henry  Drummond  well  says,  "  Hves  for  others. 
It  sets  aside  something  costly,  a  gift  to  the  future, 
brought  into  the  world  and  paid  for  by  its  own  de- 
mise. Every  seed,  every  Qggy  is  a  tithe  of  love." 
Paternity  implies  a  regard  for  another,  more  or  less 
permanent.  Maternity  is  synonymous  with  self- 
sacrifice. 

As  we  look  through  the  annals  of  natural  history, 
what  curious  and  even  romantic  details  are  beheld  grow- 
ing from  these  fruitful  roots  !  We  see  the  sand-wasp, 
that  never  beholds  its  offspring,  nevertheless  laboriously 
laying  up  for  its  grubs  a  provision  of  fresh  food  in  a 
sealed  storehouse  ;  the  paternal  pipe-fish,  carrying  the 
eggs   of  its   offspring  about  in  a  pouch  till  they  are 


42        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

hatched  ;  the  father-nightingale,  feeding  the  mother 
regularly  while  she  is  sitting  on  the  nest ;  the  indig- 
nant gander,  valorously  protecting  its  little  brood 
against  the  intrusive  stranger  ;  the  mother  Honess,  in- 
tercepting with  the  shield  of  her  own  body  the  lance 
which  threatens  her  cub, — what  resplendent  and 
touching  testimonies  do  the  annals  of  science  furnish 
to  refute  the  calumny  that  the  cosmic  order  is  one 
solely  or  chiefly  of  ruthless  self-assertion ! 

No  doubt,  this  parental  love  was  in  the  beginning 
crude,  narrow,  and  hard.  Evolution  had  to  give  it 
long  and  patient  polishing  before  the  bitter  buds,  the 
dwarfish,  crumpled  cotyledons,  became  the  lovely  and 
stately  blossoms  of  disinterested  and  unswerving  af- 
fection that  we  admire  to-day.  But  the  important 
thing  to  notice  is  that  the  moral  germ  was  there; 
something  unique  in  its  kind  and  divine  in  its  possi- 
bilities. As  Professor  Romanes  has  well  said  :  •'  The 
greatest  of  all  distinctions  in  biology,  when  it  first 
arises,  is  thus  seen  to  be  in  its  potentiahty  rather  than 
in  its  origin.  The  distinction  'between  a  nature  that 
can  and  a  nature  that  cannot  possess  moral  power  is 
capital."  Once  established  in  the  world,  this  altruistic 
bud  was  sure  to  increase  and  sweeten.  Loveless 
parents  meant  neglected,  stunted  dying  offspring. 
But  the  loving  father  and  mother  saved  and  improved 
their  offspring  and  made  more  loving  descendants. 
The  fostering  affection,  however  little  it  matters  not, 
was  bound  to  be  preserved  and  accumulated  by  that 
best  of  bankers,  heredity,  at  compound  interest.  Each 
succeeding  family  in  this  royal  line  is  richer  in  the 
elements  that  make  for  progress.     The  little  group  of 


TEE  SANCTION  FOR  MORALITY  IN  NATURE        43 

father,  mother,  and  offspring  act  together,  and  are 
stronger  for  their  union.  New  forces  of  sympathy, 
brotherhood,  and  devotion  spring  up  within  the  holy 
circle ;  and  in  the  family,  evolution  gains  a  new  in- 
strument and  ally,  a  daily  generator  and  guardian  of 
the  social  and  moral  forces  through  which  human 
progress  is  attained. 

All  these  parental  feelings,  it  may  be  urged,  how- 
ever, are  but  enlargements  and  prolongations,  so  to 
speak,  of  self.  The  offspring  belongs  to  the  mother, 
and  her  care  of  it  has,  therefore,  nothing  properly  dis- 
interested about  it.  Outside  this  family  circle  can  we 
find  in  the  system  of  nature  any  examples  of  mutual 
help,  any  instances  of  truly  disinterested  sympathy  and 
cooperation  ? 

Most  assuredly  we  can.  He  who  cannot  see  them, 
but  perceives  in  the  cosmic  order  only  a  gladiatorial 
pit,  either  has  only  a  meagre  knowledge  of  natural  his- 
tory, or  wilfully  closes  his  eyes  to  its  nobler  chapters. 

At  the  dawn  of  animate  existence,  every  life  was 
probably  a  single  cell,  as  we  still  see  in  the  case  of  the 
amoeba  and  other  protozoa.  But  this  self-sufficiency 
leads  to  nothing  in  evolution.  For  the  development 
process  to  advance,  it  must  resort  to  the  cooperative 
principle.  So  we  have  compound  plants  and  flowers ; 
the  colonies  and  groups  in  which  the  lower  animals 
club  together  their  forces ;  the  communal  life  of  the 
polyps,  the  sponges,  and  the  bees,  where  each  member 
or  group  takes  up  its  respective  share  of  labor  for  the 
public  good ;  one  set  drawing  in  the  food,  a  second 
digesting  it,  assimilating  and  storing  it  away ;  a  third 
producing  buds,  seeds  or  eggs. 


44        THE  NEW  WOULD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

As  we  direct  our  glance  a  little  higher  up  the  ladder 
of  life,  we  see  a  still  more  interesting  case  oi'  mutuai 
aid  in  those  notable  interchanges  of  good  services  be- 
tween blossom  and  insect,  to  which  we  owe  all  that  is 
beautiful  and  fragrant  in  the  floral  world.  In  its  in- 
most heart  the  flower  spreads  a  banquet  of  honey,  and 
marks  the  road  to  it  with  showy  or  conspicuous  petals 
or  some  sweet  perfume,  that  even  at  night  will  guide 
the  insect  guest  to  the  nectar.  As  each  bee  or  moth 
or  butterfly  helps  itself  from  the  table  of  its  floral  host, 
it  pays  for  all  it  takes  by  carrying  the  fertilizing  pollen 
to  the  neighboring  flower,  and  ensuring  the  preserva- 
tion and  multiplication  of  the  species  that  has  fed  it. 
Thus  plant  and  insect  develop  together.  Those  plants 
survive  and  multiply  most  that  hide  their  honey  and 
pollen  best  from  hostile  marauders,  but  leave  some 
clue  to  guide  their  insect  helpers.  The  bee  and  the 
moth  quicken  in  intelligence  and  helpfulness,  because 
those  who  make  the  most  skilful  go-betweens  will 
best  feed  themselves  and  best  propagate  the  plants 
that  will  feed  their  descendants.* 

Even  on  this  low  range  in  the  animate  world,  it  is 
evident  that  "  those  creatures  succeed  best  who,  in 
fulfilling  their  own  life,  also  compass  the  good  of 
other  beings."  The  farther  and  higher  we  pursue  our 
investigation,  the  more  numerous  and  striking  are  the 
illustrations  of  this  reciprocity  and  helpfulness.  The 
beetles  assist  each  other  in  rolling  up  the  pellets  of 
manure  in  which  they  bury  their  eggs.  Many  cater- 
pillars weave  tents  in  common.  Beavers  combine  to 
cut  down  logs  and  build  their  dams  and  communal 
huts.     Wolves,  wild-dogs,  and  jackals  do  their  hunting 


THE  SANCTION  FOR  3I0RALITY  IN  NATURE        45 

in  packs.  Rabbits,  sheep,  chamois,  and  rooks  give 
each  other  signals  of  danger.  ^  Among  bees,  the 
neuters,  who  never  become  mothers,  watch  over  the 
eggs  and  cocoons  as  if  these  were  their  own.  The 
agricultural  ants  sow  in  common,  and  harvest  and 
store  their  crops  in  granaries  to  use  in  common,  for 
general  sustenance.  According  to  Forel,  the  funda- 
mental feature  in  the  life  of  many  species  of  ants  is  the 
obligation  of  every  ant  to  share  its  food,  already 
swallowed  and  digested,  with  every  member  of  the 
community  who  may  apply  for  it.  If  an  ant  which 
has  its  crop  full  is  too  selfish  to  regurgitate  a  part  of 
it  for  the  use  of  a  hungry  comrade,  it  will  be  treated 
as  an  enemy. 

The  instances  of  sympathy  and  self-sacrificing  kind- 
ness among  animals  are  as  numerous  as  they  are  in- 
teresting. Sir  James  Malcolm  personally  told  Professor 
Romanes  of  a  monkey  on  shipboard,  who,  when  its 
companion  monkey  fell  overboard,  threw  to  it  a  cord, 
the  other  end  of  which  was  tied  around  its  own  body.^ 
Mrs.  OHve  Thorne  Miller,  in  a  recent  lecture,  told  of  a 
cedar-bird  that  she  had  known  to  take  charge  of  a 
nest  of  young  robins  whose  parents  had  been  killed, 
and  to  bring  up  the  brood  of  orphans  with  motherly 
care.  Mr.  Belt  tells  of  a  number  of  cases  where  he 
has  seen  ants  that  had  been  buried  under  clay  or 
pebbles  released  by  their  neighbors,  often  with  great 
labor.  ^  When  seals,  buffaloes  or  deer  are  attacked, 
the  males  put  the  mothers  and  young  and  weak  of  the 

1  Darwin,  Descent  of  Man,  p.  loo. 

2  Romanes,  Animal  Intelligence,  p.  475. 
'Naturalist  in  Nicaragua,  1874,  p.  26. 


•46        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOVGHT 

herd  in  the  least  exposed  place,  and  go  to  the  front  to 
meet  the  enemy.^ 

Thomas  Edward,  the  Scotch  naturalist,  having 
wounded  a  tern,  or  sea-swallow,  so  that  it  could  not 
fly,  saw  it  lifted  up  by  two  unwounded  comrades  and 
carried  out  to  a  rock  in  the  sea  beyond  his  reach.^ 

The  weasel,  which,  as  Rev.  J.  G.  Wood  relates, 
came  to  pick  up  and  carry  away  an  injured  comrade  ; 
the  rats,  who  led  a  sightless  comrade  by  a  straw ;  ^  the 
blind  pelican,  who  was  fed  by  neighbors  on  fish 
brought  many  miles ;  *  the  gander  that  guided  his 
blind  comrade  about  by  gently  taking  her  neck  in  his 
bill ;  ^  the  old  baboon,  who  came  down  from  his  place 
of  safety  on  the  hill  to  force  his  way  through  a  pack 
of  dogs  and  carry  off  a  young  baboon  that  had  re- 
mained behind  in  peril,  ^ — these  instances  of  tender 
feeling  and  generous  deeds  might  be  called  the  de- 
lightful romances  of  natural  history,  were  it  not  that 
every  one  of  them  is  a  well-attested  fact.  They  are 
only  a  few  among  many  similar  cases. 

The  scientific  skeptic  may  object  that  none  of  these 
incidents  affords  proof  of  conscious  self-devotion  in 
the  animal  world,  but  only  of  a  blind  instinct.  Among 
human  beings  we  should  certainly  call  them  altruistic 
— nay,  moral.  Why  should  we  reckon  them  uncon- 
scious and  egoistic  when  occurring  among  animals  ? 

1  Thomson,  Passions  of  Animals,  p.  306,  and  Darwin,  Descent  of 
man,  p.  loi. 

3  Romanes,  Animal  Intelligence,  p.  275. 
3  Seelenleben  der  Thiere,  p.  64. 
*  Darwin,  Descent  of  Man,  p,  102. 
'  Romanes,  Animal  Intelligence,  p.  272. 
«  Darwin,  Descent  of  Man,  p.  10 1. 


THE  SANCTION  FOR  MORALITY  IN  NATURE        47 

But  if  they  are  illustrations  of  the  action  of  blind  in- 
stinct, then  all  the  stronger  is  the  disproof  of  the 
charge  that  nature  has  no  sanction  and  command  ex- 
cept for  self-interest.  All  the  stronger  is  the  proof 
that  there  is  an  innate  tendency,  rooted  in  the  consti> 
tution  of  nature  and  all  social  things,  that  irresistibly 
expresses  itself  in  sympathetic  impulses  and  self-sacri' 
ficing  kindnesses. 

Finally,  we  may  notice  that  nature,  instead  of  frown, 
ing  down  and  repressing  this  altruistic  tendency,  has 
constantly  favored  and  sanctioned  it.  It  has,  indeed^ 
been  the  very  channel  of  the  higher  evolution  of  life. 
If  we  run  over  the  names  of  the  commoner  and  more 
numerous  tribes  of  animals,  the  birds,  deer^  gophers, 
seals,  kangaroos,  antelopes,  mice,  and  rabbits,  or,  going 
lower  down,  bees,  ants,  and  grasshoppers,  almost  all 
are  gregarious  animals.  The  social  animals  have  an 
immense  preponderance  over  the  unsocial.  The  car- 
nivora,  whose  cruel  self-seeking  Professor  Huxley 
presents  as  the  type  and  condition  of  success  in  the 
competitions  of  nature,  are  relatively  very  few  in  num- 
ber. They  are  the  exceptions,  not  the  normal  type, 
any  more  than  the  train-robber  and  the  Tammany 
"pantata"  are  typical  Americans.  Almost  every- 
where these  species  are  dying  out.  '  *  The  dragons  of 
the  prime,"  who  "  tear  each  other  in  their  slime,"  and 
who  have  been  presented  as  the  true  type  of  nature, 
"  red  in  tooth  and  claw,"  lie  in  their  fossil  cemeteries, 
eternal  witnesses  to  the  judicial  sentence  which  nature 
has  pronounced  upon  them  and  their  ways.  Never  in 
the  annals  of  zoology  was  there  such  a  Waterloo  (as 
Mr.  Fiske  has  well  called  it)  as  these  giant  Saurians 


48        TNE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

met.  Among  the  carnivora  that  still  survive  it  is 
evident  that,  in  spite  of  their  terrible  claws,  or  fangs, 
and  their  strength  and  agility,  these  depredators  and 
enemies  of  their  fellows  are  everywhere  falling  behind 
in  the  race  of  life.  Neither  their  natural  weapons 
nor  their  terrible  energy  of  self-seeking  are  equal,  as 
aids  to  survival  and  multiplication,  to  the  mutual  help 
and  greater  intelligence  of  the  social  animals.  Dar- 
win's dictum,  that  "  those  communities  which  included 
the  greatest  number  of  the  most  sympathetic  members 
would  flourish  best,"  is  found  to  be  the  fact  and  law 
of  animal  evolution. 

Professor  Huxley  charges  that  man,  having  pro- 
gressed because  of  those  qualities  which  he  shares 
with  the  ape  and  the  tiger,  now  that  he  has  become 
civiUzed  and  moralized  would  kick  down  the  ladder  by 
which  he  mounted.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  never 
been  by  tigerish  cruelty,  or  a  monkey-like  wanton- 
ness, selfishness,  or  malicious  mischievousness,  that 
man  has  reached  his  superior  position.  These  quali- 
ties, on  the  contrary,  have  arrested  the  progress  of  ape 
and  tiger.  Man  has  gone  above  them  because  of  his 
larger  share  of  the  altruistic  and  social  impulses,  and 
the  mutual  help  and  cooperative  industry  which  have 
tided  the  feeble  over  periods  of  weakness,  and  stimu- 
lated intelligence  and  skill  as  nothing  else  has  done. 

So  far  from  primitive  man  being  a  solitary,  blond 
beast  of  prey,  his  hand  against  every  man,  whose 
fundamental  instinct  was  cruelty  and  injury  to  others, 
as  Nietzsche  portrays  him,  the  discoveries  of  arch- 
aeology show,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  earliest  men 
we  know  were  already  social  beings  and  united  in  con- 


THE  SANCTION  FOR  MORALITY  IN  NATURE        49 

siderable  communities.  The  kitchen-middens  of 
quarternary  man,  discovered  and  investigated  by 
Steenstrup,  have  a  thickness  of  three  metres  in  some 
places,  and  must  have  been  formed  by  a  very  numer- 
ous horde  of  men.  "  The  piles  of  horses'  bones  at 
Solutre,"  says  Max  Nordau,  in  his  work  on  Degenera- 
tion, "  are  so  enormous  as  quite  to  preclude  the  idea 
that  a  single  hunter,  or  even  any  but  a  very  large 
body  of  allied  hunters,  could  have  collected  and  killed 
such  a  large  number  of  horses  in  one  place.  As  far 
as  our  view  penetrates  into  historic  time,  every  dis- 
covery shows  us  primitive  man  as  a  gregarious  animal, 
who  could  not  possibly  have  maintained  himself,  if  he 
had  not  possessed  the  instincts  which  are  presupposed 
in  life  in  a  community,  viz.,  sympathy,  the  feeling  of 
solidarity,  and  a  certain  degree  of  unselfishness.  We 
find  these  instincts  already  existent  in  apes." 

"  The  splendid  beast  of  prey,"  whom  the  worship- 
pers of  self  would  present  as  the  typical  human  type, 
is  not  only  pernicious  to  the  species,  but,  as  Dr. 
Nordau  points  out,^  is  pernicious  to  itself  also.  "  It 
rages  against  itself;  it  annihilates  itself.  The  biolog- 
ical truth  is  that  constant  self-restraint  is  a  necessity 
of  existence,  as  much  for  the  strongest  as  for  the 
weakest.  It  is  the  activity  of  the  highest  human 
cerebral  centres.  If  these  are  not  exercised,  they 
waste  away ;  i.  e.y  man  ceases  to  be  man ;  the  pre- 
tended '  over-man  '  becomes  sub-human, — in  other 
words,  a  beast.  By  the  relaxation,  or  breaking  up  of 
the  mechanism  of  inhibition  in  the  brain,  the  organ- 
ism sinks  into  irrecoverable  anarchy  in  its  constituent 

*  Nordau,  Degeneration,  p.  431, 


50        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

parts  ;  and  this  leads,  with  absolute  certainty,  to  ruin, 
to  disease,  madness,  and  death,  even  if  no  resistance 
results  from  the  external  world  against  the  frenzied 
egoism  of  the  unbridled  individual." 

In  these  social  and  altruistic  impulses  of  the  higher 
orders  of  animal  life,  the  philosophic  investigator  sees 
plainly  the  great  uplifting  causes  of  vital  evolution. 
This  social  and  altruistic  life  is  conditioned  upon  the 
rudimentary  moral  sense  of  the  species. 

Unless,  in  the  members  of  a  group  of  birds,  there 
is  an  incipient  sense  of  justice,  which  leads  them  to 
respect  the  tid-bit  which  a  neighbor  has  found,  or  to 
chastise  together  the  member  who  has  lazily  and  self- 
ishly appropriated  the  nest  of  a  fellow  bird,  the  social 
group  would  quickly  fall  to  pieces.  All  naturalists 
who  have  studied  gregarious  species,  have  noticed 
amongst  them  a  certain  sense  of  personal  rights  and 
the  duty  of  just  dealing  with  their  fellow-members  in 
the  group.  The  dogs  in  Constantinople  have  each 
their  special  street  or  alley,  the  invasion  of  which  they 
resolutely  resist.  The  prairie-dog  and  the  beaver  have 
their  respective  resting-places,  which  their  comrades 
respect. 

Even  in  the  animal  kingdom,  we  thus  find  the  moral 
disposition  to  exist  in  a  more  or  less  developed  form. 
When  we  reach  the  human  sphere,  that  which  especially 
characterizes  its  progress  is  the  greater  and  greater  re- 
striction of  selfish  and  unmoral  competition  by  the 
growing  sense  of  sympathy  and  justice  in  the  com- 
munity. Even  among  barbarians,  the  qualities  that 
make  a  tribe  the  fittest  to  survive  are  not  merely 
strength  of  body,  ferocity  of  disposition,  and  keen- 


THE  SANCTION  FOB  MORALITY  IN  NATURE        51 

ness  in  taking  advantage  of  one's  fellow,  but  rather 
the  possession  of  trustworthy,  helpful,  and  loyal  dis- 
positions. Take  a  tribe  of  savages,  among  whom 
robbery,  murder,  licentiousness,  cannibalism,  and  in- 
fanticide prevail.  Is  it  not  plain,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  that  such  tribes  are  not  likely  to  leave  abun- 
dant offspring  ?  Is  it  not  the  testimony  of  all  travelers, 
that  such  tribes  are  decaying  tribes,  yearly  diminish- 
ing, tribes  on  whose  head  nature  has  already  pro- 
nounced sentence  ? 

When,  from  the  low  state  of  morals  among  certain 
Australian  and  African  savages,  it  is  argued  that  we 
have  here  the  proof  and  illustration  of  the  general 
absence  of  moral  qualities  in  primitive  humanity,  the 
real  sequence  of  cause  and  effect  is  reversed.  It  is, 
on  the  contrary,  precisely  because  such  tribes  have 
been  deficient  in  average  moral  quality,  that  they  have 
failed  to  march  upward  on  the  road  of  civilization 
with  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  have  fallen  into  these 
bog-holes  of  savage  degradation.  It  is  only  when 
humanity  is  spurred  on  by  conscience  to  the  faithful 
discharge  of  great  duties,  that  our  race  develops  to 
the  full  stature  of  its  manhood. 

Natural  history,  archaeology,  and  biology  all  com- 
bine their  testimony  to  show  the  error  of  that  view 
which  denies  to  nature  any  moral  lesson  or  tendency, 
and  sees  in  evolution  simply  a  cruel  and  selfish  strug- 
gle. The  sympathetic  instinct  and  moral  necessity 
that  man  feels  belong  to  no  artificial  world  opposed  to 
the  great  order  of  the  universe.  They  are  rooted 
deep  in  those  same  natural  bonds  and  sacred  unities 
which,  wherever  red  blood  flows  in  the  veins,  have 


52        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

conditioned  the  very  continuance  of  the  species  on 
the  faithful  discharge  by  each  generation  of  their  duty 
to  others  besides  themselves.  Vice  and  injustice  are 
ever  destroying  themselves.  The  more  single-eyed 
is  selfishness,  the  more  likely  it  is  to  starve  itself  to 
death.  It  is  a  matter  of  simple  scientific  observation 
that  the  preponderance  of  selfishness  among  a  family 
or  a  people,  and  the  decay  of  that  family  or  people, 
go  together.  The  predominance  of  egotism  is  a 
physiological  sign  that  the  vitality  of  the  species  is 
exhausted ;  the  family  instinct  dies  out,  and  the  indi- 
viduals lose  their  ability  to  experience  normal  and 
natural  love,  and  cease  to  perpetuate  themselves. 

As  Dr.  Nordau  has  pointed  out :  "  We  possess  an 
unfailing  means  of  determining  the  exact  degree  of 
vital  energy  in  a  given  species,  race  or  nation,  in  the 
proportion  between  the  egotism  and  altruism  of  the 
individuals  contained  in  it.  The  larger  the  number 
of  beings  who  place  their  own  interests  higher  than 
all  the  duties  of  solidarity  and  the  ideals  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  species,  the  nearer  is  the  species  to 
the  end  of  its  vital  career.  While,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  more  individuals  there  are  in  a  nation  who  have 
an  instinct  within  them,  impelling  them  to  deeds  of 
heroism,  self-abnegation,  and  sacrifice  for  the  com- 
munity, the  more  potent  are  the  vital  energies  of  the 
race"     ("The    Conventional   Lies    of    Civilization," 

p.  270). 

The  best  of  social  fertilizers,  then,  are  affection  and 
sympathy.  Virtue  has  a  self-propagating  power. 
Self-sacrifice,  emptying  the  soul  of  the  dregs  of  self- 
ishness, and  filling  it  with    the   living  water  of  the 


THE  SANCTION  FOB  MORALITY  IN  NATURE        53 

Eternal  Spirit,  makes  harvests  bourgeon  and  ripen, 
wherever  its  irrigati  ng  stream  spreads  abroad.  MoraHty 
is  no  invention  of  priests,  statesmen,  or  philosophers. 
It  is  an  irresistible  growth  of  the  human  heart,  the 
fairest  blossom,  the  age-long  victory  and  product  of 
that  Divine  Life  of  the  universe  that  has  ever  moved 
onward  from  chaos  to  cosmos,  from  carnal  to  spiritual. 
That  lustrous  march  is  no  drama  of  red-toothed 
carnage,  but  a  patient  ascent  through  successive 
planes  of  wider  and  more  intimate  cooperation,  fusing 
individuals  in  famihes,  families  in  tribes,  tribes  in  na- 
tions, and  nations  in  the  universal  family  of  God's 
children,  in  which  Jew  and  Greek,  male  and  female, 
black  and  white,  must  have  their  equal  right  and 
place  before  the  tribunal  of  Christian  equity  and 
sympathy.  The  highest  efflorescence  on  the  century- 
plant  of  cosmic  life,  the  message  of  nature,  as  of 
Scripture,  is  Love. 

The  universe  is  God's  unfenced  and  all-inclusive 
communion  table ;  and  every  act  of  humane  minis- 
tration, every  helpful  hand  stretched  out  to  the  weak 
or  fallen  is  a  sacred  rite  in  its  holy  Eucharist. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   agnostic's    DIFFICULTIES   AND    THE    KNOWABILITY 
OF  DIVINE  REALITIES. 

At  the  threshold  of  the  investigation  of  the  special 
problems  presented  by  the  relations  of  science  to  re- 
ligion there  lies  the  preliminary  question :  What  can 
we  know  in  religious  things,  and  how  ? 

This  is  properly  a  question  of  pure  metaphysics, 
with  which  science  has  nothing  to  do,  and  there  ought 
not  to  be  upon  this  point  any  conflict  between  the 
scientific  and  the  religious  world.  Science  may 
properly  declare  what  she  has  learned  and  how 
she  has  learned  it.  But  when  she  proceeds  to  de- 
termine what  and  how  alone  it  is  possible  to  know 
anything,  and  engages  in  analyses  of  consciousness,  in 
investigations  of  the  laws  of  thought,  and  clumsily 
would  spin  again,  over  the  eyes  of  faith,  the  subtle 
logical  webs  of  Hume  and  Kant,  then  it  is  evident 
that  science  has  strayed  into  the  realm  of  metaphysics 
and  is  trying  "  her  prentice  hand  "  upon  the  problems 
of  philosophy. 

Nevertheless,  though  but  an  interloper  and  a 
neophyte  herself  in  this  field,  or  rather  just  for  this 
reason,  science  has  of  late  assumed  absolute  authority 
in  the  domain  of  the  knowable,  and  has  summarily 
ordered  religion  into  close  confinement.  The  brilliant 
successes  of  modern  science, — rivalling  all  wonders  of 
54 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  55 

the  romancers,  seven-leagued  boots,  lamp  of  Aladdin, 
wand  of  fairy,  or  what  not, — these  marvelous  achieve- 
ments have  made  her  believe  that  her  favorite  methods 
are  the  only  ones  by  which  anything  is  to  be  known. 
He  who  would  build  up  solid  structures  of  fact,  not  air- 
castles  of  thought,  must  work,  science  tells  us,  by  observa- 
tion, induction,  and  verification.  He  must  concern 
himself,  so  science  orders,  only  with  what  is  discernible 
by  sense,  and  must  ignore  the  suprasensible.  All  that 
we  can  know  is  phenomena.  Realities  can  never  be 
reached.  Things  in  themselves  are  far  beyond  our 
knowledge.  The  idea  of  immaterial  spirit  must  be 
assigned,  as  Vogt  commands,  to  a  place  among  specu- 
lative fables.  Substance,  essence,  soul, — these  are  but 
high-sounding  terms  which  cover  so  many  chimeras. 
Certainly,  it  is  urged,  it  is  not  for  man  to  know  God. 
It  is  not  for  the  finite  to  think  to  find  out  the  Infinite. 
All  conceptions  involving  infinity, — such  as  creation^ 
self-existence,  eternity,  absolute  reality  (Herbert 
Spencer  labors  at  length  to  show  in  his  First  Prin- 
ciples),— involve  the  inconceivable ;  and  though  by 
our  familiarity  with  the  sounds  we  may  think  we  un- 
derstand them,  they  are  really  but  "  pseudo-ideas, 
symbolic  conceptions  of  the  illegitimate  order."  "  The 
power  which  the  universe  manifests  is  utterly  inscru- 
table," a  conclusion  to  which  Professors  Huxley  and 
Tyndall  gave  repeated  and  emphatic  "  Amens." 
When  the  question  is  asked,  "  Who  made  the  uni- 
verse ?  "  Professor  Tyndall  replied,  "  As  far  as  I  can 
see,  there  is  no  quality  in  the  human  intellect  which  is 
fit  to  be  applied  to  the  solution  of  the  problem.  It 
entirely  transcends  us." 


56        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

Science  thus  denies  to  religion  a  foothold  in  the 
realm  of  the  knowable.  The  objects  which  she  would 
worship  are  banished  into  an  impenetrable  darkness, 
and  all  that  is  left  for  her  is  to  cover  her  head  and 
veil  her  face  before  the  mysterious  realm.  In  the 
solemn  emotions  of  the  heart  she  may  indulge  herself 
freely,  if  she  likes ;  but  she  must  not  presume  to 
fashion  the  vague  thought  of  that  which  she  reveres 
into  any  definite  shape.  She  must  not  venture  to 
speak  of  that  which  she  adores  as  if  it  were  in  any 
sense  known  to  her.  •*  The  only  language  concerning 
the  divine,"  as  Renan  says,  "  that  does  not  degrade 
God  is  silence." 

There  is  in  this  attitude  a  semblance  of  a  deeper 
religiousness.  Spencer  calls  it  '*  the  true  humihty  "  ; 
Renan  characterizes  it  as  "  the  effect  of  a  profound 
piety,  trembling  lest  it  blaspheme."  But  it  is  in  truth, 
the  subtlest  and  most  dangerous  attack  on  religion. 
The  old-fashioned  atheism  said  bluntly,  "  There  is  no 
God,"  and  the  extremity  of  its  folly  was  its  own 
refutal.  The  infidelity  of  to-day  says,  "  Whether  or 
not  there  is  any  God,  we  can  know  nothing  at  all 
about  Him,  and  so  ought  not  to  waste  our  time  by 
taking  Him  into  consideration.  If  it  pleases  you, 
however,  to  embrace  with  the  deepest  longings  of 
your  nature  this  blank  mystery ;  if,  debarred  from 
knowing,  you  find  consolation  nevertheless  in  the 
exercise  of  your  creative  faculties,  in  fashioning  the 
mystery  in  accordance  with  your  words,  why  then," 
say  Tyndall  and  Huxley,  "  do  so ;  only  have  regard 
enough  for  propriety  and  the  exclusive  prerogatives 
of  science   to   confine  your  worship  to  that  of  the 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  57 

silent  sort  at  the  altar  of  the  unknown  and  the  un- 
knowable." 

Practically,  there  is  little  difference  between  this 
theory  of  spiritual  nescience  and  outright  denial  of 
spiritual  existence.  The  assurance  that  we  are,  and 
must  always  remain,  in  dense  ignorance  of  spiritual 
things  kills  the  hope  of  heaven  and  the  reverence  for 
the  divine.  It  takes  from  conscience  its  authority, 
and  withers  every  religious  emotion.  Who  can  wor- 
ship an  absolute  darkness,  an  utter  silence?  If  the 
absolute  reality  be  utterly  inscrutable  there  is  no 
reason  to  think  of  it  under  one  aspect  more  than  any 
other.  It  may  as  Hkely  be  cruel  as  kind,  contemptible 
as  venerable,  vile  and  treacherous  as  majestic  and 
faithful.  If  we  ought  to  revere  it,  there  ought  to  be 
something  in  it  cognizable  as  worthy  of  reverence. 
Why,  if  it  be  utterly  unknowable,  should  we  not  hate 
it  as  rightly  as  love  it,  despise  it  instead  of  adoring 
it?  To  make  God  a  name  sweeter,  grander,  more 
venerated  than  all  others,  it  must  be  more  than  a 
piece  of  blank  paper.  To  build  that  temple  of  re- 
ligion where  songs  of  praise  and  thanksgiving,  aspi- 
rations for  a  better  Hfe,  hopes  of  a  brighter  and  eternal 
home  and  vows  of  solemn  consecration  spontaneously 
spring  from  the  heart  and  ascend  worthily  and  not  in 
bitter  mockery,  we  need  other  material  than  an  eye- 
blinking  fog-bank. 

That  know-nothingism  in  religion,  then,  which  cer- 
tain scientific  cliques  would  establish,  has  not  the  first 
shred  of  a  claim  to  be  considered  its  best  friend.  As 
little  claim  has  it  to  be  founded  on  truth  or  clear 
ideas.     It  is  true  enough  that  no  sense-observation 


58        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

can  show  us  spiritual  things.  But  neither  does  sense 
restrict  itself  to  the  horizon  of  the  visible,  the  tan- 
gible, and  the  sensible.  Tyndall  justly  speaks  of  "  that 
region  inaccessible  to  sense,  which  embraces  so  much 
of  the  intellectual  life  of  the  investigator."  When 
that  which  the  microscope  fails  to  see  is  regarded  as 
non-existent,  "  then  I  think,"  he  says,  "  the  micro- 
scope begins  to  play  a  mischievous  part,"  and  he 
proceeds  to  point  out  many  cases  where  structure  and 
structural  changes  must  be  believed  to  exist  although 
the  microscope  can  make  nothing  of  them. 

As  it  is  in  mineralogy  and  biology,  so  it  is  in 
chemistry,  thermo-dynamics,  and  optics.  What  is  the 
whole  of  these,  as  systematized  sciences,  built  upon  ? 
Upon  the  assumption  of  the  existence  of  the  mole- 
cule, the  atom,  and  the  ether.  Yet  of  these  units  of 
matter  how  many  have  been  isolated,  separately 
weighed,  measured,  or  touched?  Of  their  ceaseless 
motions  how  many  have  been  felt  or  seen  ?  Of  this 
omnipresent  ether,  some  eleven  trillion  times,  or  more, 
as  extensive  as  ordinary  matter,  how  many  particles, 
what  smallest  quantity,  has  been  observed  ?  Not  one. 
The  largest  molecule,  it  is  calculated,  is  a  thousand 
times  smaller  than  any  particle  the  microscope  can 
separately  discern  and  the  ether  is  immensely  subtler 
even  than  this. 

Again,  let  the  scientist  tell  us,  why  it  is  that  in  any 
case  that  he  chooses  of  outward  observation,  he  trusts 
the  report  of  his  senses  as  assuring  him  of  any  out- 
ward fact?  You  assume,  for  example,  that  when 
your  senses  observe  or  verify  anything,  then  you  have 
something  you  can  confide  in.     Why  so  ?     Do  you 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  59 

say  that  you  have  learned  from  experience  on  other 
occasions   that   the   impressions    of  your  senses  are 
correctly  conformed  to  the  permanent  something  im- 
pressing them  ?     But  in  reality  this  does  not  establish 
the  permanent  something  as  outside  of  yourself.     It 
may  be,  perhaps,  only  a  coherent  abiding  group  of 
subjective  sensations.     In  reality  no  experience  of  the 
correctness  of  the  sense  upon  other  occasions,  how- 
ever many,  suffices  to  show  that  it  was  not  wrong  in 
this.     A  certain  antecedent  and  a  certain  consequent 
may  have  been  connected  for  a  hundred  million  of 
times,  and  yet  the  next  time  (a  possibility  of  which 
Mr.  Babbage's  calculating  machine  furnishes  an  actual 
instance)  the  consequent  may  be  different.     So  far 
from   this   trust   in   our   senses   being   furnished   by 
experience,  it  is  what  always  does  and  must  precede 
experience.     It  is  what  alone  makes  experience  pos- 
sible and  shows   it  to  be  applicable.     As  Professor 
Huxley  has  acknowledged,  this  trust  in  the  veracity 
of  our  senses  at  the  very  moment  that  we  make  the 
sensory  observations  is  but  an  assumption,  and  when 
that  moment  has  passed,  it  is  but  an  "  unverifiable 
hypothesis."^     Why,  then,  do  we  make  such  an  as- 
sumption, such  an  "unverifiable  hypothesis"?     Be- 
cause of  the  mental  need,  because  it  is  an  intuition  of 
our  reason,  or,  as  Professor  Bain  calls  it,  "  the  fore- 
most  of   the    instinctive    tendencies    of  the   mind." 
Again,  before  the  physicist  considers  that  he  really 
understands  the  object  that  he  has  found,  before  he 
has  any  true  scientific  knowledge  of  it,  he  feels  that 
he  must  classify  it,  refer  its  phenomena  to  some  law 

1  Popular  Science  Monthly ^  March,  1875,  p.  576. 


60        TEE  NEW  WOELD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

in  accordance  with  which  it  takes  place,  some  force 
that  has  produced  it.  Why  is  this  ?  Again  it  must 
be  answered,  it  is  from  a  mental  need,  the  instinct  of 
natural  order,  of  constant  derivation  of  effect  from 
cause. 

It  is  the  intuitive  principle,  then,  that  in  science 
supplies  the  cement  that  binds  the  loose  fact-grains  of 
observation  into  coherent  and  valuable  structures. 
The  lowest  stories  of  the  scientific  temple  cannot  be 
built  up  without  this,  and  the  higher  still  more  demand 
it.  The  discerning  physicist  must  recognize  that  the 
grandest  victories  of  science  are  those  which  it  has 
won  by  the  aid  of  the  imagination  beyond  the  bounds 
of  the  visible.  Geometry,  e.  g.y  is  throughout  a  work 
of  mental  architecture,  grounded  upon  and  guided  by 
pure  mental  insight  of  space.  Had  geometrical  truths 
required  for  their  acceptance  demonstration  from  ob- 
servation we  should  have  known  hardly  a  single  prop- 
osition. An  exact  right-angle  has  no  existence  as 
matter  of  experience.  A  perfect  sphere  is  unattain- 
able in  practice.  Arithmetic,*  algebra,  astronomy,  are 
ideal  constructions,  resting  on  the  metaphysical  con- 
ception of  number,  and  nowhere  conforming  to  ex- 
actly ascertained  fact.  In  electricity,  magnetism, 
thermo-dynamics,  the  subtile  analyses  of  modern  in- 
vestigators have  banished  altogether  the  former  the- 
ories of  material  fluids,  and  substituted  the  concep- 
tion of  invisible  forces.  The  power  that  moulds  the 
crystal,  that  attracts  the  magnet,  that  moves  along 
the  electric  wire,  can  be  seen  only  by  the  mental  eye. 
Observed  facts  form,  of  course,  the  starting-point  of 
knowledge,   but    they   do    not    constitute    its    limit- 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  61 

Reason  is  not  to  be  chained  around  the  ankle  with  re- 
torts and  balances,  like  a  convict  with  ball  and  chain. 
The  wise   savant   must   admit,  as   the   distinguished 
Bertholet   expressly   has    done,   that  "  there  may  be 
something  else  to  conceive,  without  knowing  it  ex- 
perimentally,  than   connections    of  phenomena,  and 
that  outside  the  limits  where  positive  science  asserts 
itself  it  may  be  possible,  without  excess  of  mysticism, 
to  perceive  the  outlines,  and  to  trace  the  sketch  of  a 
certain  ideal  science  where  first,  principles,  causes,  and 
ends    find   their   place,  and   legitimately  support  it." 
"  It  is  not,"  in  truth,  as  Caro  has  well  said,  "  the  new 
fact  which  constitutes  a  discovery."     It  is  *'  the  idea 
which  attaches  itself  to  the  fact.     Facts  are  neither 
great  nor  little  in  themselves.     The  grandeur  is  in  the 
idea  which  marshals  them.     Those  who  make  dis- 
coveries are   those  who  present  us  with  a  new  idea 
which   puts    old    or   petty  facts    in   a   striking   light. 
And  this  comes  not  so  much  from  an  induction  as 
from  an  instinctive  fore-feeling  of  the  order  of  nature. 
So  far  from  the  mind  being  a  blank  tablet,  learning 
everything   from   experience,  the   fact   is  that  expe- 
rience is  only  fruitful  when  it  is  guided  by  something 
that  goes  before  and  beyond  facts,  which  solicits  them, 
which,  impelled  by  the  momentum  of  the  innate  idea, 
interrogates    nature,    compels    it    under    its    urgent 
catechizings  to   deliver  up  its  secret,  revealing  as  a 
reality  of  nature  the  law  hitherto  but  dreamed  of  by 
the  thinker." 

Even  in  the  scientific  domain,  then,  comparatively 
little  can  be  known  unless  the  external  vision  be  sup- 
plemented by  the  inward  sight  and  the  sense-percep- 


62        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

tion  be  enlarged  by  the  mental  intuition.  And  in  the 
religious  world  it  is  by  the  same  means  that  we  learn 
those  spiritual  phenomena, — personality,  free-will, 
sense  of  duty, — and  those  grand  ideas,  right  and 
wrong,  infinity,  perfection,  and  divinity,  that  are  the 
ineradicable  roots  of  faith  and  piety.  Not  only  is 
there  more  than  one  road  to  the  land  of  knowledge, 
but  he  who  would  reach  its  richest  mines,  its  grand- 
est spiritual  truths,  must  take  the  road  of  spiritual 
discernment.  Science  has  failed  to  find  them,  and 
declared  them  undiscoverable,  simply  because  it  has 
traveled  on  the  wrong  path  and  used  the  wrong  in- 
struments. To  seek  to  learn  the  presence  of  the 
moral  law  by  an  electrometer,  or  to  test  for  the  exist- 
ence of  the  soul  with  litmus  paper,  or  to  discover  God 
by  the  spectroscope,  is  as  fruitless  a  quest,  and  fruitless 
for  the  same  reason,  as  to  seek  to  taste  a  sound,  or  to 
verify  the  beauty  of  the  Sistine  Madonna  by  making 
a  chemical  analysis  of  the  pigments  used  upon  it.  In 
such  cases  the  failure  to  observe  the  objects  searched 
for  does  not  demonstrate  their  non-existence,  but 
simply  the  application  to  the  inquiry  of  wrong 
methods.  Against  the  failure  of  the  sense  to  dis- 
cover anything,  I  put  the  success  of  the  spirit.  Not 
till  the  perfume  of  the  rose  is  disproved  by  the  inabil- 
ity of  the  eye  to  see  it ;  not  till  spherical  geometry 
is  shown  false  by  the  undiscoverability  in  nature  of 
a  perfect  circle  or  by  the  absence  of  any  absolute 
verification  of  the  theorems  concerning  it,  may  the 
negative  testimony  of  outward  observation  avail  aught 
against  the  positive  testimony  of  the  religious  facul- 
ties. 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  63 

But  intuition  and  instinct,  we  shall  be  told,  are  full 
of  illusions,  and  moreover  have  no  safeguard  such  as 
verification    affords    to    observation.      There    is    no 
method  by  which  we  can  test  them,  to  distinguish  the 
false  from  the  true, — if  there  be  any  true.     And  so 
far  from  having  a  divine  origin,  and  testifying  legiti- 
mately to  eternal  and  universal  truths,  they  are,  in 
reality,  like  our  prejudices  and  our  tastes,  products  of 
human  experience.     Our  intuitions  are  thus  subject  to 
the  same  conditions  as  our  experience,  and  give  no 
absolute   truth.     The   axioms   of  geometry,  as    Pro- 
fessor Helmholtz  has  shown,  though  necessary  truths 
to  us,  may  be  false  in  another  sphere.     Imagine  be- 
ings living  and  moving  on  the  surface  of  a  sphere, 
able  to  perceive  nothing  but  what  is  on  the  surface, 
insensible  to  all  else.     The  axioms  of  Euclid  would 
not   there   be   valid.     The   axiom,  for  instance,  that 
there  is   only  one  shortest  line  between  two  points 
would  not,  on  such  a  sphere,  be  the  truth.     For  be- 
tween two  diametrically   opposite   points   an  infinite 
number  of  shortest  lines,  all  of  equal  length,  could  be 
drawn.     Similarly,  other  axioms  and  propositions  of 
our  geometry  would  no  longer  hold  good. 

Now,  what  shall  we  say  to  this  ?  We  willingly 
admit  that  not  unfrequently  what  are  mere  prejudices 
or  ungrounded  prepossessions,  pass  themselves  off  or 
are  mistaken,  for  genuine  intuitions.  We  admit  that 
intuitions  are  not,  at  the  first,  mature  or  purified  from 
other  elements,  and  that  it  takes  great  carefulness  to 
disentangle  and  discriminate  them  from  the  other 
things  with  which  they  are  involved.  They  come 
into  the  world   not  as  full-formed  powers,  but  rather 


64        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

as  the  capacities  and  potentialities  of  mental  life. 
Only  gradually  do  these  embryo  faculties  unfold,  and 
while  experience  is  not  their  cause,  it  is  undoubtedly 
the  occasion  and  condition  of  their  development. 
Between  their  adult  and  their  rudimentary  phase 
there  is  as  wide  a  difference  as  between  the  grown 
bird  and  the  Qgg.  That  the  manifestations  of  the 
human  intuitions  should  vary  or  should  sometimes, 
especially  among  savage  tribes,  be  absent  altogether, 
is,  then,  no  evidence  against  their  trustworthiness  or 
reality.  If  they  sometimes  delude  us,  it  is  but  the 
same  thing  that  the  senses  do.  Scarcely  a  week 
passes,  even  with  persons  of  intelligence,  in  which 
there  is  not  more  or  less  illusion  of  the  perceptive 
faculties. 

But  these  observations  of  sense  you  say  are  verified 
by  other  observations  of  the  same  sense  or  other 
senses,  or,  if  illusions,  are  corrected  by  their  disagree- 
ment with  such  other  observations.  But  what  veri- 
fication have  intuitions  ?  The  same  I  answer  as  your 
perceptions.  When  you  have  verified  one  perception 
by  another,  what  do  you  verify  your  verification  by  ? 
If  it  has  no  verification,  how  is  it  any  better  guarantee 
than  the  preceding  perception  ?  If  it  has  a  verifica- 
tion, what  is  it — another  perception  ?  something  out- 
side of  itself,  or  in  itself?  As  long  as  verification  is 
sought  in  further  observations,  in  corroborations  not 
self-evident,  we  must  continue  our  search  for  some 
more  valid  verification.  We  can  stop  only  when  we 
come  to  some  self-evident  truth,  which  needs  no  ex- 
ternal buttress.  We  always  do  rest,  and  can  only 
rest,  our  perceptive  verifications  at  last  in  some  intui- 


TEE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  65 

tion.  ^'  Intuition  has  no  verification ;  and  conse- 
quently no  safeguard,"  do  you  say  ?  I  reply :  "  It  is 
its  own  verification  and  safeguard.  Verification  itself 
is  preceded  and  conditioned  upon  it." 

How,  then,  if  we  are  cut  off  from  perceptive  cor- 
roboration, can  we  distinguish  between  a  false  and  a  true 
intuition  ?  The  test  is  found  in  mental  analysis.  The 
guarantee  of  true  intuitions  is  their  simpHcity,  irre- 
ducibility,  ultimateness,  universality,  above  all,  their 
necessity.  The  best  criterion  of  a  truth,  as  Herbert 
Spencer  declares,  is  "  the  inconceivability  of  its  nega- 
tion," and  the  mark  of  reality  is  "  inexpugnable  per- 
sistence in  consciousness."  There  are  conditions 
under  which  the  intuitions  may  not  be  apphcable.  In 
a  world  of  two  dimensions  the  axioms  of  geometry 
of  three  dimensions  would  not  of  course  hold  true. 
But  this  does  not  prove  that  the  axioms  and  demon- 
strations of  Euclid  are  false  ;  only  that  conditions  may 
be  conceived  in  which  they  would  not  apply.  The 
axioms  and  demonstrations  are  true  eternally,  even 
though  nowhere  in  nature  should  be  found  the  con- 
ditions in  which  they  could  be  applied  and  realized. 

Here  we  are  met  by  the  objections  of  the  evolution- 
ist school,  that  these  intuitions  are  really  but  prod- 
ucts of  the  experience  of  the  race, — mental  habits 
formed  by  association  and  consolidated  by  inheritance, 
and  thus  ingrained  in  the  cerebral  structure  of  each 
descendant, — so  that  on  the  application  of  the  ap- 
propriate stimulus,  the  ideas  of  the  man  of  to-day  are 
given  the  same  forms  as  they  had  in  his  ancestor. 

As  regards  this  I  would  remark,  in  the  first  place, 
that  it  is  an  explanation  quite  inconsistent  with  the 


66        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

main  theory,  the  evolution  hypothesis,  of  those  who 
offer  it.     The  law  of  evolution  is  the  ascent  from  the 
lower  to  the  higher,  from  the  simple  to  the  more 
complex,  from  the  instinctive  to  the  rational.     But  ac- 
cording to  this  theory  the  habits  and  powers  which 
are  now  involuntary  and  unconscious  were  formerly 
more  voluntary  and  conscious.     The  earlier  faculties 
of  animals,  for  example,  were  the  higher,  and  their 
present  state  a  degeneration.     Why  do  we  give  to  the 
instincts  of  the  bee,  the  wasp,  the  beaver,  a  special 
place  in  our  thoughts,  rather  than  suppose  them  to  be 
ordinary    exercises    of  the   conscious   reason   of  the 
creature  ?     Because  the  knowledge  which  the  opera- 
tions of  instinct  exhibit,  the  acquaintance  with  phys- 
ical and  physiological  laws,  and  even  with  the  mental 
qualities  and  dispositions   of  other  animals  which  it 
displays,  and  the  processes  of  reasoning  by  which  ad- 
vantage is  taken  of  them,  do  not  seem  to  us  attribu- 
table to  the  conscious   mind  of  the  animal  without 
absurd  incongruity  with  the  limited  intelligence  of  the 
creature  in  other  respects.     But  the  absurdity  is  just 
as  great  or  greater  to   attribute  it  to  the  conscious 
knowledge    and   reasoning    of   the   same   species    in 
earlier  generations.     It  is  true  enough  that  in  man 
many  actions  become  instinctive  and  mechanical  as 
the  result  of  a  previous  intellectual  operation  of  the 
self-conscious  or  reasoning  kind.     But  the  idea  that 
instinct  in  all  other  animals  has  the  same  origin,  the 
Duke  of  Argyll  rightly  calls  "  a  dream  due  to  the  ex- 
aggerated anthropomorphism  of  those  very  philoso- 
phers who  are  most  apt  to  denounce  this  sort  of  error 
in  others.     .     .     .     The  theory  of  experience  assumes 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  67 

the  preexistence  of  the  very  powers  for  which  it  pro- 
fesses to  account.  The  very  lowest  of  the  faculties 
by  which  experience  is  acquired  is  imitation.  But  the 
desire  to  imitate  must  be  as  instinctive  as  the  organs 
are  hereditary  by  which  imitation  is  effected."  Then 
follow  in  their  order  all  the  higher  faculties  and  ideas, 
such  as  those  of  space,  time,  law,  purpose,  cause,  by 
which  the  lessons  of  experience  are  put  together  into 
an  ordered  whole.  Every  step  in  this  process  sup- 
poses the  preexistence  of  powers  and  tendencies  an- 
terior to  experience,  instinctive  and  innate.  As 
Herbert  Spencer  himself  has  truly  said,  "  Those  who 
contend  that  knowledge  results  wholly  from  the  ex- 
periences of  the  individual,  fall  into  an  error  as  great 
as  if  they  were  to  ascribe  all  bodily  growth  and  struc- 
ture to  exercise,  forgetting  the  innate  tendency  to 
assume  the  adult  form."  But  to  assign  it  all  to  the 
experience  of  the  individual's  ancestors  equally  neg- 
lects the  main-factor  in  the  case,  the  innate  tendencies 
not  only  of  physical  structure  but  of  mental  habit, 
that  must  have  preexisted  before  these  creatures  could 
have  learned  anything  at  all  from  experience. 

So,  too,  he  who  explains  our  natural  beliefs  as  mere 
unmeaning  agglutinations  from  the  lower  elements  of 
our  experience,  formed  by  the  association  of  ideas, 
commits  the  error  of  overlooking  the  significant  fact 
involved  in  those  laws  of  association  themselves. 
"  For  the  very  idea  of  association,"  as  has  been  well 
pointed  out,  supposes  a  guiding  impulse.  How  can 
w^e  classify  without  a  standard  of  classification  ?  How 
can  we  connect  without  channels  of  connection  ? 
Laws  of  association  are  but  the  manifestation  of  pre- 


68        TEE  NEW  WOULD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

determined  associating  tendencies  or  principles  in  the 
mind.     Did  not  these  exist,  a  man  would  be  no  more 
capable  of  learning  from  experience  than  an  oyster  is. 
But  let  us  grant  for  the  moment  the  truth  of  the 
hereditary  experience   theory,  and   see  what   comes 
of  it.     Suppose  we  trace  our  instincts  and  intuitions 
back  to  the  consolidated  experience  of  our  ancestors. 
Let  us  say  that  we  think  with  the  intelligence,  not 
only  of  the  individual,  but  of  the  whole  race,  from  the 
earliest   epoch    of  savage  life  down  to  the  present. 
Then,  if  you  wish,  grant  the  further  hypothesis  of  the 
evolutionist,  that  the  man  is  the  child  of  lower,  ape- 
like forms,  and  these  of  still  lower,  and  thus  trace  the 
race  down  to  some  simple  ascidian  or  jelly-fish.     Then 
resolve  life  into  the  happy  combination  of  physical 
forces,  and  mind  into  the  product  of  nervous  action 
under  the  influence  of  the  surrounding  universe  of 
matter.     What  then  ?     If  the  mind  is  but  a  part  and 
product  of  the  universe  of  matter,  then  the  laws  of  mind 
are  but  the  laws  of  matter  released  and  transformed. 
They  are  the  laws  of  mind  on  this  higher  stage  of  ex- 
istence, because  of  old  they  were  the  laws  of  matter  in 
the  lower  stage.     Our  fundamental  forms  of  thought, 
our  universal  instincts  and  necessary  intuitions  point, 
then,  to  universal  facts  of  nature  which  engendered 
them.     Instead  of  being  subjective  merely,  or  possibly 
delusive,  they  must  correspond  to  the  objective  facts 
of  nature  to  which  their  existence  is  due.     They  bear 
sure  witness  to  the  existence  in  the  cosmic  environ- 
ment about  them,  of  all  those  great  principles,  forces, 
and  truths  to  which  they  are  the  natural  and  necessary 
self-adjustments.     We  know  things,  that  is,  as  they 


TEE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  69 

arc;  our  knowledge  of  the  universe,  given  in  our 
universal  instincts  and  necessary  intuitions,  though 
quite  a  limited  knowledge,  is  true  as  far  as  it  goes. 

But  if  we  may  trust  to  those  instincts  and  intuitions 
which  testify  to  the  existence  of  spiritual  things  suffi- 
ciently to  accept  such  order  of  existence  as  a  fact,  can 
we  know  any  more  than  the  bare  fact  of  such  ex- 
istence ?  Is  not  the  whole  nature  of  spiritual  things, 
it  is  urged,  shrouded  in  inscrutable  mystery?  The 
infinite,  the  divine,  things  in  themselves,  are  not  these 
beyond  the  possibility  of  knowledge  to  finite  minds  ? 
Now  it  is  true  that  the  Hmits  of  our  knowledge  are 
very  narrow,  and  also  that  within  these  narrow  limits 
our  knowledge  is  very  imperfect.  In  truth,  there  is 
nothing  that  we  know  completely.  Our  bosom  friend 
is  a  foreign  kingdom  to  us.  We  have  touched  at  most 
but  at  a  port  or  two  along  the  shores  of  his  spiritual 
realm.  There  are  multitudes  of  inlets  hidden  from  us 
— vast  provinces  of  his  life  and  being  which  our  most 
adventurous  explorations  have  never  reached.  Even 
the  most  familiar  object,  the  grass-blade,  the  drop  of 
water,  the  simplest  crystal,  has  something  about  it  that 
is  unknowable.  To  explain  any  one  of  these  com- 
pletely we  must  know  the  whole  cosmos.  Especially 
is  this  so  in  the  religious  realm.  For,  as  Strauss  has 
truly  said,  *'  there  is  nothing  profound  without  mys- 
tery." Grander  and  brighter  than  all  other  truths,  as 
spiritual  truths  are,  their  shadows  naturally  are  equally 
pronounced.  We  shall  always  remain  ignorant  of  much; 
probably  we  shall  remain  ignorant  of  even  the  greater 
part  of  what  relates  to  the  origin  and  history  of  the  uni- 
verse, the  character,  nature,  and  relations  of  God  and  the 


70        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

soul.  Nevertheless,  to  maintain  that  the  darkness  here 
is  total  is  just  as  much  of  an  error  as  to  maintain  that  all 
is  light.  Though  we  cannot  know  divine  things  with 
complete  fulness,  we  may  yet  know  them  in  part. 
Though  human  intellect  cannot  fathom  to  the  bottom 
the  depths  of  spirit,  nor  follow  out  to  infinity  the  divine 
curve,  yet  it  can  drop  the  plummet  of  thought  deep 
enough  to  know  whether  this  sacred  mystery  can  be 
any  form  of  matter  or  blind  force;  or  whether  it  must 
be  thought  to  be  something  higher.  It  can  trace  out 
a  section  of  the  infinite  hyperbola  sufficient  to  show 
whether  the  curve  run  by  chance  or  law,  towards  the 
irrational  or  the  rational,  the  evil  or  the  good,  the 
impersonal  or  the  personal. 

The  boundary  of  the  knowable,  in  the  first  place,  is 
not  a  rigid,  immovable  limit.  It  gives  to  the  pick  of 
the  scientist,  to  the  probe  of  the  philosopher,  to  the 
clearer  eye  of  the  seer.  One  age  leaves  it  at  a  differ- 
ent place  from  that  where  it  found  it.  If  the  realm 
of  the  unknown  is  never  to  cease  to  surround  that 
of  the  known,  it  is  not  because  no  incursions  can  be 
made  into  it,  but  because,  however  much  it  gives  up, 
its  infinity  is  inexhaustible.  It  is  a  path  that,  though 
knowable  in  front  as  well  as  behind,  is  yet  so  bound- 
less that,  though  the  discoverer  go  on  and  on,  he  will 
still  find  ever  lengthening  vistas  of  the  unexplored  to 
invite  him  further  still. 

In  the  second  place,  it  should  be  noticed  that  he 
who  pronounces  God  absolutely  unknowable  erects 
his  own  inability  as  a  bound  for  all  attainments,  and, 
moreover,  as  Martineau  has  pointed  out,  he  implicitly 
attributes  to  that  which  he  exalts  as  infinite  and  un- 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  71 

limited  a  very  restricting  limitation  and  incapacity, 
viz.,  the  inability  to  make  himself  known.  For,  evi- 
dently if  there  is  no  possibility  of  God's  being  known 
by  man,  then  on  the  side  of  God  there  must  be  an 
equal  impossibility  of  His  making  Himself  known. 
To  assert  this  seems  to  me  to  be  a  gross  presump- 
tion rather  than  the  humble  and  modest  attitude  that 
it  has  been  reckoned.  A  genuine  humble-mindedness 
would  qualify  even  the  confession  of  its  own  ignorance 
and  inability  with  a  doubt  of  that.  The  true  agnostic 
ought  rather  to  speak  of  God  as  one  of  the  Hindu 
Upanishads  speaks  of  Brahma,  "  Whosoever  knows 
this  truth,  I  do  not  know  that  I  do  not  know  him,  he 
knows  him." 

In  one  sense  the  inconceivable  is  incredible.  That 
which  contradicts  our  reason  is  certainly  not  to  be 
believed ;  for  it  cannot  be  even  thought.  In  one 
sense  the  infinite  is  inconceivable, — it  is  unpicturable, 
that  is,  by  the  imagination,  it  is  unrealizable  by  the 
wildest  fancy.  When  the  world-conquering  ape,  in 
the  Chinese  fable,  aspired  to  subdue  heaven  also, 
Brahma  held  out  his  hand,  and  bade  him  leap  over  it. 
Over  eye-wearying  plains,  over  range  after  range  of 
snow-clad  summits  the  ape  flew  in  his  mighty  bound, 
and  alighted  on  the  loftiest  mountain  peak  that  he  had 
ever  beheld.  But,  lo !  it  was  but  one  of  Brahma's 
fingers.  So,  in  our  mightiest  flights  of  intellect,  we 
can  pass  over  but  a  finger's  breadth  of  the  divine. 

Nevertheless,  the  inconceivable,  in  another  sense, 
namely,  that  which  overpasses  our  finite  faculties  not 
by  contradiction,  but  by  immensity,  is  certainly  cred- 
ible, is,  indeed,  absolutely  necessary  to  thought.     The 


72        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

idea  of  the  infinite,  though  not  to  be  pictured,  is  one 
clearly  thinkable.  This  infinity  of  immensity,  that 
which  is  more  than  any  finite,  is  a  quite  positive  idea. 
Its  vastness  in  quantity  may  debar  us  from  enclosing 
it  in  our  thought,  but  it  does  not  prevent  our  grasping 
enough  of  it  to  know  its  quality.  It  may  not  be  en- 
tirely comprehended ;  but  it  is  not  unintelligible  in  its 
essential  characteristics.  Magnitude  and  nature  are 
different  things.  Because  one  cannot  be  encompassed 
in  thought,  we  are  not  therefore  utterly  ignorant  of 
the  other.  I  cannot  comprehend  in  my  thought  this 
immense  ocean  of  air  in  which  we  live,  and  by  which 
we  breathe.  Nevertheless,  I  know  its  nature,  its 
chemical  constituents,  its  pressure,  elasticity,  fluidity, 
and  other  mechanical  properties,  and  I  know  that 
they  are  essentially  the  same  in  every  part  of  the  im- 
mense atmospheric  sea  that  envelops  the  globe.  Sup- 
pose the  immensity  of  the  air  actually  infinite  instead 
of  merely  immensely  beyond  our  comprehension, 
would  its  nature  be  any  the  less  knowable  ?  Take  the 
infinite  space  that  our  reason  compels  us  to  believe  in, 
and  while  our  minds  are  unable,  evidently,  to  realize 
its  extent,  yet  can  we  think  of  it  in  any  part,  even  at 
infinity,  as  anything  else  than  space, — possessed  of 
the  same  three  dimensions,  and  capable  of  holding  ex- 
tended objects?  Take  a  cylinder.  Prolong  it  in 
thought  to  infinity.  Though  we  cannot  by  utmost 
stretch  of  our  imagination  follow  it  there,  yet  we  know 
that  at  infinity  it  would  still  keep  all  the  character- 
istics of  a  cylinder,  and  none  others.  A  section  made 
at  right-angles  to  the  axis  would  always  be  a  circle. 
Similarly  with  a  trait  or  attribute  of  the  divine ;  its 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  73 

enlargement  to  the  infinite  scale  does  not  change  it 
into  something  else.  Infinite  power  we  know  is  still 
power ;  infinite  wisdom  without  doubt  is  still  wisdom. 
Love  in  the  divine  is  not  something  entirely  unknow- 
able, but  the  sweetest  and  fullest  form  of  affection. 
Spiritual  things  are  not  exalted  by  immensity  or  in- 
determinateness,  but  by  perfection  of  character. 
God's  infinitude  is  not  exclusive,  separating  Him  from 
His  creation,  but  rather  inclusive.  Our  knowledge  is 
not  so  much  erroneous  as  inadequate.  We  may 
trust  it  not  only  for  what  it  tells,  but  for  the  direction 
in  which  it  points  us. 

It  seems  to  be  thought  that  somehow  that  which 
we  cannot  or  do  not  know  must  be  necessarily  an- 
tagonistic to  what  we  do  know,  and  puts  it  all  in 
doubt.  But  that  which  must  always  remain  unknown 
certainly  cannot  upset  our  present  knowledge ;  it  can  do 
nothing  to  us  that  should  frighten  us,  or  unsettle  our 
minds.  And  that  which,  though  not  yet  known,  may 
hereafter  be  brought  within  the  field  of  our  knowl- 
edge must,  through  that  very  possibility  of  being 
known,  have  harmonious  relations  with  our  present 
knowledge.  We  can  come  to  understand  the  un- 
known only  as  we  can  find  in  it  some  likeness  to  the 
already  known.  The  new  knowledge  will  modify  the 
old ;  it  may  add  to  it ;  but  it  will  not  be  totally  dis- 
similar or  contradictory.  This  is  the  experience  of 
all  growth  in  knowledge  hitherto,  that  the  same  order 
holds,  new  truths  being  unfolded  from  the  old,  not 
blankly  opposing  it.  And  we  may  rightly  presume 
it  for  the  remainder.  "  Doubt  ought  not  to  be  thrown 
upon   an    intuition  or  a   demonstration,"    as    George 


74        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

Henry  Lewes  has  justly  said,  in  his  "  Problems  of  Life 
and  Mind,"  **  merely  because  it  is  an  intuition  or  a 
demonstration  of  one  item  in  the  great  whole  itself. 
If  we  can  resolve  an  equation  of  the  first  or  second 
degree,  this  absolute  certainty  is  not  disturbed  because 
there  are  equations  of  the  sixth  degree  wdiich  surpass 
our  powers.  .  .  .  The  existence  of  an  unknown 
quantity  does  not  affect  the  accuracy  of  calculations 
founded  on  the  known  quantities  of  the  element." 
Certainly,  from  the  mere  possibility,  if  there  be  such 
a  possibility,  of  an  upsettal  of  our  present  ideas  (some- 
time or  somehow ;  no  one  pretends  to  say  when  or 
how)  no  sensible  man  should  discard  all  the  solidly 
grounded  truths  already  attained.  The  logical  vice 
involved  in  the  argument  of  Spencer  and  the  agnostic 
school  in  general  is,  in  fact,  the  very  one  that  savants 
and  logicians  have  blamed  theologians  for  falling  into. 
The  agnostic  school,  it  will  be  found,  always  starts 
with  some,  generally  with  a  great  many,  assumptions 
as  to  the  infinite  and  absolute, — what  they  are,  and 
what  they  imply, — and  from  these  they  reason  down 
towards  the  finite  and  the  created,  and  because  they 
find  in  this  process  of  analysis,  comparison,  and 
logical  development  many  inconsistencies  and  incon- 
ceivabilities, they  leap  to  the  conclusion  that  the  ulti- 
mate Reality  is  in  every  respect  unknowable,  and  that 
those  attributes  of  power,  wisdom,  love,  righteousness, 
with  which  humanity,  as  the  result  of  its  experience 
and  intuition,  has  invested  the  divine  are  all  delusive  ; 
that,  in  short,  we  have  no  justification  in  assigning  to 
the  First  Cause  any  attributes  whatever.  The  agnostic 
thus  turns  his  own  inability  to  argue  down  correctly 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  75 

from  the  infinite  into  an  accusation  of  the  impossi- 
bihty  of  the  theist's  arguing  up  from  the  finite  towards 
the  infinite.  Mathematics,  however,  show  that  argu- 
ments from  the  infinite  to  the  finite  are  rarely,  if  ever, 
trustworthy,  while  arguments  from  the  finite  up  to  the 
infinite  are  often  sound  and  valuable.  Because  the 
agnostic,  by  inverting  the  proper  method  of  reason- 
ing as  regards  the  infinite,  gets  himself  into  trouble, 
does  it  at  all  follow  that  no  valid  results  can  be  at- 
tained by  the  theist  when  he  employs  the  right 
method  ? 

In  point  of  fact,  however  much  men  of  science 
object  to  the  use  of  the  infinite,  they  themselves  use  it 
freely;  in  many  departments  they  cannot  proceed 
without  it.  In  geometry  the  conceptions  of  the  line, 
circle  and  sphere ;  in  mathematics  the  passage  from 
the  axioms  of  uniform  motion  to  other  forms  of 
motion  ;  in  algebra  the  calculus,  the  mightiest  instru- 
ment of  mathematical  investigation, — all  these  require 
as  indispensable  the  conception  of  the  infinitely  small, 
and  reasoning  upon  it.  Astronomy  and  geology,  on 
the  other  hand,  lead  us  to  the  correlative  infinitude, 
the  infinitely  large.  Especially  do  those  who  belong 
to  the  materialistic  school,  and  scout  most  contemptu- 
ously the  idea  of  any  infinite  when  presented  by 
theism,  make  without  scruple  the  most  confident  as- 
sertions of  the  infinite  in  their  own  hypotheses. 
Strauss,  Vogt,  Buchner,  Haeckel,  each  lays  down,  as 
fundamental  principles  of  his  system,  the  eternity  of 
matter  and  the  immortality  of  force.  Even  Herbert 
Spencer  cannot  get  along  without  using  the  idea  of 
the  infinite.     Though  he  has  branded  all  ideas  which 


76        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

involve  infinite  self-existence  as  pseudo-ideas,  and  con- 
sequently condemned  all  forms  of  theism,  pantheism, 
and  materialism  as  inevitably  involving  such  illegiti- 
mate conceptions,  no  sooner  has  he  laid  theology,  as 
he  imagines,  in  ruins,  and  swept  off  the  debris,  and 
gone  about  his  own  system  of  thought-building,  than 
he  puts  in  again  the  same  old  condemned  corner- 
stone ;  he  tells  us  that  matter  was  uncreated  and  in- 
destructible, and  that  force  always  persists  in  abso- 
lutely unchanged  quantity, — ideas  which  necessarily 
involve  infinite  duration  both  in  the  past  and  the 
future.  And,  more  than  this,  the  principle  of  thought 
by  which  science  extends  its  reasonings  beyond  the 
finite  is  just  the  same  as  that  by  which  religion  claims 
to  know  the  character  of  the  divine,  viz.,  that  what  is 
true  up  to  a  limit  is  true  at  the  limit. 

But  is  not  our  knowledge  confined  to  the  relative  ? 
it  will  still  be  urged.     Can  we  know  God  in  Himself? 
Can  we  think  of  the  Absolute  without  determining  and 
conditioning    Him?     Can    we   think   of    the    divine 
except  in  the  colors  of  the  thinking  self?     Doubtless 
we  cannot.     But  this,  again,  is  a  condition  of  all  our 
knowledge.     We  can  know  no  one  in  himself,  out  of 
his  relations  to  us.     We  know  a  friend  only  by  the 
various    manifestations   of  his    personality,  his  looks, 
tones,  actions.     And  these  must  come  into  some  con- 
nection with  ourself.     We  cannot  know  a  grain  of 
corn  in  its   inmost  nature,  irrespective  of  its  appear- 
ance to  us.     We  know  it  only  by  the  phenomena  that 
it  manifests,  its  shape,  hardness,  color,  taste.     More- 
over, these  manifestations  must  be  manifestations  to 
our  special  senses,  our  individual  mind.     What  they 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  77 

are  or  may  be  independent  of  our  sensibility  we  can 
never  know.  Whatever  perception  we  have,  the  per- 
ceiving subject  is  mingled  with  it,  and  a  factor  in  the 
product,  and  that  perception  is  such  only  as  the  nature 
of  our  faculties  allows  it  to  be.  Without  eyes  we  can 
know  no  color,  without  ears,  no  sound,  and  the  range 
of  colors,  the  gamut  of  sounds,  is  such  only  as  the 
structure  of  those  organs  allows. 

Now  all  this  is  true  enough,  and  instead  of  this 
mystery  of  the  absolute  and  this  veil  of  the  relative 
being  death-sentences  of  faith,  they  are  as  innocent  as 
any  principle  of  knowledge  that  can  be  found.  All 
that  this  famous  difficulty  amounts  to  saying  is,  that 
if  we  take  away  all  that  we  can  know  of  any  object  we 
cannot  know  what  is  left ;  and  this  self-evident  law  of 
all  things  applies  also  to  God,  that  we  cannot  know 
Him  more  fully  or  know  Him  by  any  different  way 
than  we  know  all  other  things. 

This,  I  say,  is  true  enough.  But  about  it  has  gath- 
ered a  huge  penumbra  of  notions  that  are  not  true, 
that  do  not  follow.  It  does  not  follow,  as  is  inferred, 
that  because  our  knowledge  is  relative  to  us  it  is 
therefore  deceiving.  Why  may  not  the  relative  be 
real  and  true  ?  Is  there  anything  that  necessarily  con- 
fines genuineness,  actuality,  or  substantiality  to  that 
which  does  not  come  into  relation  with  us  ?  Why  is 
all  this  to  be  attributed  to  that  mental  air-castle — 
"  the  thing  in  itself,"  or  to  the  relations  of  things  to 
other  minds  rather  than  to  their  relations  to  our 
minds  ?  What  reason  have  we  for  assuming  reality  to 
be  that  which  cannot  appear,  or  which  appears  to 
other  minds  or  in  other  relations  than  to  us ?    "If 


78        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

reality  is  inscrutable,  then,"  as  Lewes  asks,  "  by  what 
right  can  we  affirm  it  different  from  the  manifested 
things  ? "  I  maintain  that  all  things  are  known  by 
their  relations,  for  the  simple  reason  that  all  things 
exist  only  in  relations.  I  maintain  that  the  relative, 
the  phenomena  that  appear  to  us,  are  not  mere 
phantasms,  but  parts  of  the  great  real.  A  man  stubs 
his  toe  against  the  curbstone.  The  sensation  within 
him  is  a  real  thing,  the  stone  is  a  real  thing.  Doubt- 
less it  is  something  more  than  what  he  feels  it  to  be  ; 
but  it  is  at  least  this,  in  this  relation.  It  may  be 
thought  of  without  reference  to  its  present  conditions, 
but  it  is  just  now,  in  reference  to  those  conditions, 
precisely  what  he  feels  it  to  be.  Remove  it,  and  the 
whole  equilibrium  of  the  cosmos  would  feel  the 
change. 

And  moreover  the  realities,  so  far  from  being  made 
unknowable  to  us  by  our  relations  to  them,  are  re- 
vealed through  those  relations.  To  infer  that  we  can 
know  only  the  relations,  never  the  things ;  that  we 
can  become  acquainted  only  with  appearances,  never 
with  substances ;  and  that  we  have  no  reason  to  be- 
lieve in  the  existence,  or  to  believe  anything  about 
the  nature  of  things  and  substances,  is  another  fallacy. 
Relations  have  no  existence  unless  there  are  things 
to  be  related ;  and  if  the  things  are  entirely  unknown, 
their  relations  must  be  also  unknown.  Appearances 
are  impossible  unless  there  is  something  to  appear. 
And  moreover  through  the  relations  themselves  comes 
a  knowledge  of  the  things  related.  In  the  very  ap- 
pearances we  learn  of  the  substances  appearing.  My 
desk,  for  example,  manifests   itself  to  my  touch   as 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  79 

hard  and  smooth ;  to  my  eye  as  of  a  certain  shape  and 
color;  to  the  ear,  if  it  be  vigorously  struck,  as  pos- 
sessed of  a  certain  resonance.  These  phenomena  and 
relations  to  my  sensitive  self,  speak  of  something 
which  has  power  to  impress  me  with  these  sensations ; 
they  speak  of  something  that  abides,  that  I  cannot 
banish  by  thinking  it  away — something  that  affects  a 
photograph  plate  very  much  as  it  affects  my  eye; 
something  that  when  I  shut  my  eyes  to  it  or  go  away 
from  it,  waits  for  my  return  in  the  very  same  group 
of  appearances  till  I  return.  These  quahties  speak 
of  some  substantial  unity  in  which  they  centre,  some 
reality  to  which  they  belong,  and  whose  nature,  as  it 
is  in  reference  to  me,  is  shown  by  them.  Herbert 
Spencer  arguing  for  our  knowledge  of  matter,  main- 
tains that  though  we  know  only  the  relative  reality 
yet  that  that  stands  in  such  a  fixed  relation  to  the 
absolute  reality  that  knowledge  of  one  is  tantamount 
to  knowledge  of  the  other.  "  The  conditioned  effect 
standing  in  indissoluble  relation  with  the  uncondi- 
tioned cause  and  equally  persistent  with  it,  so  long  as 
the  conditions  persist,  is  to  the  consciousness  supply- 
ing those  conditions  equally  real,  .  .  .  and  for 
practical  purposes  is  the  same  as  the  cause  itself." 
This  is  true,  and  true  for  all  phenomena,  for  all  reali- 
ties. And  in  accordance  with  this  principle,  I  claim 
that  so  far  from  the  ultimate  Reality,  the  divine,  being 
inscrutable,  we  have  no  mean  knowledge  of  it.  We 
have  knowledge  not  only  of  its  existence,  but  of  its 
nature.  We  know  it  as  we  know  matter  or  force,  as  we 
know  a  magnet,  a  rose,  a  bird, — by  its  action  upon 
us,  by  its  manifestations  to  our  faculties,  "  by  the  per- 


80        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

sistent  impressions  which  are  the  persistent  results  of 
a  persistent  cause."  God  is  in  the  manifestations  of 
Himself  which  He  presents  in  His  created  things,  as 
well  as  in  that  mysterious  essence  behind  the  mani- 
festations. God  is  in  the  known  as  well  as  in  the 
unknown. 

If  the  ultimate  Reality  be  utterly  unknowable,  as 
Mr.  Spencer  says,  then  any  manifestation  of  it  would 
be  impossible,  or  would  be  meaningless.  The  abso- 
lute Reality  would  be  a  blank  to  all  intelligence.  To 
make  any  predicate  of  it  whatsoever  would  be  illegiti- 
mate. Yet  Mr.  Spencer  himself  assigns  attributes  to 
the  Unknowable.  He  speaks  of  it  as  eternal,  o^nni- 
presenty  as  activey  as  a  poweVy  and  as  a  cause.  Pro- 
fessor Tyndall  calls  God,  "  the  power  that  makes  for 
righteousness,  intellectual  as  well  as  ethical."  Here 
certainly  is  a  good  deal  asserted  about  the  character 
as  well  as  about  the  existence  of  the  absolute  Reality, 
and  in  terms,  moreover,  derived  from  conscious  ex- 
perience. By  what  reasoning  process  have  these 
terms  been  attributed  to  the  Supreme  Existence? 
Nay,  by  what  reasoning  process  has  its  Existence 
been  known  or  affirmed  ?  "  By  our  mental  obliga- 
tion," to  answer  in  words  that  Mr.  Spencer  himself 
has  employed,  "  to  regard  every  phenomenon  as  a 
manifestation  of  some  power."  By  that  constitution 
of  our  minds  by  which  thought  cannot  be  prevented 
from  passing  behind  appearance,  and  trying  to  con- 
ceive a  cause  behind.  But  surely  if  this  reasoning 
process  is  good  to  show  us  so  much  of  the  divine,  it 
is  good  to  show  us  much  more.  Every  phenomenon 
of  the  universe  is  a  real  and  true  manifestation  of  the 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  81 

action  and  character  of  the  supreme  Cause.  As  the 
nature  of  oxygen,  though  tasteless  to  the  tongue, 
odorless  to  the  nose,  invisible  to  the  eye,  not  to  be 
grasped  by  the  hand,  is  yet  known  to  us  by  the 
effects  which  it  is  still  capable  of,  both  mechanically 
and  chemically,  so  can  we  know  the  God  who  is  Him- 
self unobservable  by  any  sense,  through  His  constant 
actions  and  effects  in  the  world. 

By  studying  these  phenomena  of  the  creation,  then, 
we  may  learn  the  character  of  the  Creator.  The 
cosmos  reveals  that  order  which  gives  it  its  name. 
St-eady  laws  in  regular  movement,  in  harmonious 
coordination  carry  on  its  manifold  operations.  Con- 
densing nebula,  whirling  cyclone,  swinging  tides,  all 
have  their  place  and  their  rule.  The  Power  from 
which  this  order  is  the  outcome,  we  may  then  know 
as  orderly. 

Again,  the  cosmos  manifests  itself  as  a  unity.  To 
the  first  glance  the  world,  indeed,  seems  a  hurly-burly 
of  contending  powers,  a  conglomerate  of  a  thousand 
different  substances,  laws,  and  existences.  But  as 
science,  with  its  closer  scrutiny  examines  it,  the 
apparent  discords  melt  away.  The  complex  resolve 
themselves  into  combinations  of  the  simple.  The 
antagonisms  reveal  themselves  as  but  efforts  at  stable 
equilibrium  and  coherences.  Through  the  whole 
gamut  of  matter — yes,  and  of  life,  with  all  its  num- 
berless forms  and  grades — is  discovered  the  harmonic 
note.  Energies  and  laws  converge  to  one  focus. 
Forces  correlate  and  transform  themselves  one  into 
the  other,  till  under  the  outward  diversity  we  can 
recognize  but  a  single  ultimate  power.    All  manifesta- 


82        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

tions  of  the  supreme  thus  resolving  themselves  into 
unity,  can  we  not  feel  sure  that  the  supreme  Cause, 
however  many  modes  of  manifestation  it  may  have, 
is  itself  one  ? 

Again,  let  us  survey  the  history  of  the  world,  the 
succession  of  living  organisms,  the  path  of  human 
events.  Is  there  not  in  these  appearances  another  at- 
tribute of  the  ever-appearing  clearly  shown — the  at- 
tribute of  life?  Nothing  remains  inert,  but  all  is 
full  of  movement.  Nothing  remains  stagnant,  but  is 
ever  pushing  forward,  climbing  up,  unfolding.  If 
sometimes  there  seems  retrogression,  it  is  but  the  back- 
ward curve  of  the  spiral,  to  mount  and  enlarge  still  more. 
Species  rise  above  species  in  an  ascending  hierarchy. 
The  new  age  stands  above  every  olden  time.  The  proc- 
ess of  the  years  brings  with  it  widening  to  every  power, 
more  and  more  perfection  to  every  form.  Has  this  spon- 
taneous activity  and  continual  process  of  adjustment 
towards  higher  and  higher  levels,  this  unfolding  evo- 
lution, or  in  plain  terms,  growth,  (the  grand  discovery 
of  modern  science)  nothing  .to  tell  us  of  the  nature 
of  the  power  that  is  behind  it?  Does  it  not,  in  fact, 
indicate  at  the  heart  of  this  self-moving  universe,  that 
which  alone  can  move  itself,  that  which  alone  can  grow, 
namely  a  Li/c,  the  vital  energy  of  the  first  cause? 

Moreover,  this  order  and  progress  in  the  universe, 
if  we  fully  understand  it,  is  arranged  according  to  in- 
tellectual conceptions,  exhibits  systematic  plans  and 
purposes.  Means  combine  to  promote  ends.  The 
thoughts  of  the  mathematicians  are  reproduced  in  the 
laws  of  plant  and  planet.  All  parts  and  processes 
move  towards  the  fulfilment  of  one  grand  design,  a 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  83 

greater  and  greater  perfection.  The  developing  proc- 
ess, as  it  runs  up  from  the  insensate  to  the  sensitive, 
from  the  instinctive  to  the  rational,  causes  more  and 
more  intelligence  to  shine  forth  in  the  world.  If 
mind  in  unconscious  nature  be  denied,  no  one  can 
deny  its  manifestation  in  the  conscious  parts  of  nature, 
animal  and  human  mind.  And  this  manifested  in- 
telligence permeating  the  world,  this  mind  blossom- 
ing forth  from  the  central  life,  must  bespeak  (on  the 
lowest  physical  view  of  its  origin)  that  central  life  as 
also  intelligent. 

Again,  in  the  harmonious  lines  and  forms  of  nature, 
blushing  blossom  and  majestic  mountain-mass,  glow- 
ing sunbeam  and  checkered  leaf-shade,  we  see  a 
beauty  that  supplies  an  exquisite  gratification.  In  the 
fruit  and  grain  prepared  in  summer  for  our  winter 
food,  in  the  treasures  of  metal  and  fuel  and  precious 
stones  built  and  stored  for  us  in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth,  in  the  million  provisions  for  the  comfort  and 
happiness  of  every  creature,  in  all  these  admirable 
adaptations  that  disclose  themselves  most  exquisitely 
to  those  who  examine  most  carefully,  there  is  shown 
the  grand  sweep  of  the  universe  towards  the  good,  the 
beneficent.  Even  in  the  bitter  we  find  the  sweet 
hidden ;  through  struggle  and  sorrow  we  are  led  to 
higher  success.  By  bane  and  by  bruise  we  are  con- 
ducted to  the  abiding  blessedness.  Can  we  behold  all 
these  tokens  of  blessedness  and  love,  and  rationally 
say  that  they  tell  us  of  no  benevolence,  that  they  sug- 
gest no  love  in  that  Being  whose  power  goeth  forth 
so  benignantly  in  space  and  time  ? 

Once  more,  survey  those  visible  things  that  especially 


84        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

manifest  the  invisible.  Observe  the  moral,  and  spiritual 
elements  of  the  world,  the  instincts  of  the  right,  the 
authority  of  moral  law.  Watch  the  invincible  tide  that 
sweeps  towards  justice,  the  remorse  that  chastises  the 
guilty,  the  serene  peace  that  rewards  the  pure-hearted. 
Consider  the  aspirations  of  the  holy,  the  grand  visions 
of  the  seer,  the  saint's  consciousness  of  divine  commun- 
ion. The  mother  counts  her  own  life  nothing  if  she  may 
save  her  babe.  The  patriot  makes  way  for  liberty  over 
his  spear-pierced  body.  The  martyr  goes  unwaver- 
ingly to  the  stake  rather  than  be  disloyal  to  truth. 
These  grand  illustrations  of  the  nobleness  of  human- 
ity which  age  to  age  renews,  their  elements  lying 
latent  in  every  soul,  are  not  they  facts  of  the  cosmic 
evolution  ?  Are  not  they  manifestations  of  the  ulti- 
mate Reality  as  truly  as  any  other  phenomena  ?  Are 
they  not  as  rightly  significant  of  its  nature?  Yes. 
As  the  picture  shows  the  artist's  sense  of  beauty,  as 
the  symphony  exhibits  the  composer's  musical  taste 
and  capacity,  as  the  judge's  administration  of  justice 
discloses  his  discernment  of  right  and  faithfulness  to  it, 
and  as  the  father's  self-sacrifice  reveals  his  paternal 
love,  so  through  the  rectitude,  justice,  love,  faithful- 
ness, and  holiness  manifested  in  mankind's  noblest 
representatives  do  we  know  in  the  Creator  of  man  a 
rectitude,  justice,  love,  and  holiness  bright  enough  to 
give  the  moral  images,  which,  even  but  dimly  reflected 
on  the  mirror  of  human  nature,  so  glorify  it.  Not 
that  these  qualities  in  us  adequately  represent  the  at- 
tributes of  the  divine,  but  rather  that  on  their  lower 
level  they  correspond  to  them,  they  shadow  forth 
something  of  the  brighter  reality.      That  in  the  Su- 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  85 

preme  there  must  be  an  intelligence  at  least  as  wise 
as  our  highest  wisdom,  a  goodness  at  least  as  much 
and  as  good  as  our  best,  a  real  equal  to  our  highest 
ideal  and  our  loftiest  aspiration — this  is  the  necessary- 
inference  from  the  manifestation  of  those  qualities  in  us. 

Here,  then,  by  those  very  methods  of  observation, 
generalization,  and  inductive  inference  by  which 
physical  science  is  built  up,  we  can  know  something, 
not  merely  of  the  existence,  but  of  the  nature  and  at- 
tributes of  the  ultimate  Reality,  manifested  in  the 
universe.  But  if  science  may  not  admit  this  sketch 
of  the  divine  character  as  affording  any  absolute  or 
complete  knowledge  of  it,  it  must  at  least  logically 
admit  it  as  sufficient  relative  knowledge,  good  as  far 
as  it  goes,  good  as  its  own  knowledge  of  the  force 
and  matter  and  motion  that  it  talks  so  confidently  of; 
good  as  these  are  for  "  good-working  hypotheses  " ; 
nay,  as  the  only  hypotheses  that  will  work. 

The  attributes  with  which  theologians  have  usually 
invested  the  divine — such  as  infinity,  eternity,  omnis- 
cience, flawless  holiness  and  absolute  perfection  and 
independence,  are  indeed,  more  or  less  unpicturable 
and  unverifiable  and  quite  metaphysical. 

It  is  well  to  admit  this. 

Suppose  then  we  should  relinquish  any  claim 
to  a  knowledge  of  them,  and  thus  avoid  all  the  im- 
possibilities of  knowing  God,  founded  upon  them,  of 
which  the  agnostic  makes  so  much.  Suppose  we 
claim  only  for  the  God  of  our  worship  a  range  as 
wide  as  the  known  universe,  a  duration  no  more  vast 
than  the  oldest  star-dust,  a  force  as  subtle  merely  as 
the  cosmic  energies,  a  manifested  presence  simply  as 


86        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

grand,  mysterious,  noble,  and  beneficent  as  the  uni- 
versal life  in  which  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being, — surely,  we  have  still  left  a  Being  divine  enough 
to  demand  our  most  reverent  worship.  I  am  not  con- 
cerned to  vindicate  against  the  doubter  any  of  the 
metaphysical  attributes  which  he  claims  prevent  us 
from  knowing  God  or  believing  in  Him.  If  they  hold 
him  back  from  behef  in  God,  I  would  say  to  him, 
"  Let  them  go."  We  have  still  left  within  our  knowl- 
edge and  before  our  eyes  the  witness  of  a  power  and 
an  intelligence  enough,  and  vastly  more  than  enough, 
to  thrill  us  with  awe,  to  quicken  us  to  praise,  and  to 
command  us,  if  we  would  win  any  success  or  true 
blessedness,  to  conform  our  will  to  that  mightier  will 
that  governs  all. 

That  is  the  short  and  simple  answer  to  these  meta- 
physical quandaries  of  the  agnostics  which  are  so 
often  regarded  as  insuperable  barriers  to  faith  in  the 
divine.  We  not  only  can  know  a  Being  worthy  of 
our  worship,  cause  of  all  that  comes  into  existence,  a 
Being  of  dimensions  and  duration  to  which  we  can 
put  no  bounds  ;  but  we  do  know  such  a  Being.  The 
agnostic  knows  Him  already  just  as  much  as  any  one 
else.  Only  he  calls  that  Being  «  Nature,"  not  God, 
and  speaks  of  it  as  if  it  were  an  independent  power. 

But  seriously  to  regard  nature  and  God  as  two  sep- 
arate powers  or  to  think  of  the  forces  of  the  world  as 
something  independent  of  God  is  to  abandon  mono- 
theism and  go  back  to  polytheism.  It  is  not  only 
poor  theology,  but  poor  science  and  poor  philosophy. 
When  men  separate  God  from  the  forces  that  are  His 
own  energies,  from  the  laws  which  are  His  own  habits 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES   ,  87 

of  action,  and  from  the  material  manifestation  which 
is  His  own  body,  and  then  try  to  prove  His  exist- 
ence, no  wonder  they  hunt  from  room  to  room  of  the 
boundless  mansion  of  earth  and  sky,  and  can  find  no 
separate  God  visible  within  the  field  of  their  telescope. 
But  let  us  begin  by  recognizing  space  as  His 
stature,  eternity  as  His  life,  and  each  vibrating  stream 
of  light  and  heat  that  bridges  the  interstellar  spaces  as 
the  throbbing  pulses  of  the  cosmic  organism ;  then 
we  find  that  that  divine  face,  as  Browning  says, 

"  Far  from  vanish,  rather  grows, 
Or  decomposes  but  to  recompose, 
Become  my  universe  that  feels  and  grows." 

The  question,  then,  becomes  much  simplified.  The 
superhuman  power,  practically  eternal  and  infinite,  is 
before  our  eyes,  besetting  us  on  every  hand.  As 
Herbert  Spencer,  in  the  name  of  science,  says,  "  Amid 
the  mysteries  that  remain  the  more  mysterious  the 
more  they  are  thought  of,  there  will  remain  (to  the 
scientist)  the  one  absolute  certainty  that  he  is  ever  in 
the  presence  of  an  infinite  and  eternal  energy  from 
which  all  things  proceed." 

So  much  is  admitted  to-day  by  modern  science. 
The  question  is  narrowed  down  to  the  alternative.  Is 
this  eternal  power  that  fills  all  space  an  inanimate  and 
unconscious  power  or  a  living  and  a  conscious  power  ? 

Now  to  this  question  the  agnostic  again  interposes, 
"  It  is  impossible  to  know."  Mr.  Ingersoll  recom- 
mends to  us  the  answer  of  the  Indian  to  the  mis- 
sionary who  was  urging  upon  him  the  Christian  faith. 
The  Indian  took  a  stick  and  made  a  little  circle  in  the 


88        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

sand,  and  said,  "  That  is  what  Indian  knows."  Then 
he  made  a  larger  circle  round  that,  and  said :  "  That 
is  what  white  man  knows.  But  out  here,  outside  of 
the  circle,  Indian  knows  just  as  much  as  white  man." 

That  was  undoubtedly  a  very  clever  stroke, — for  an 
Indian.  But  for  a  white  man  to  adopt  it  as  conclusive, 
as  Mr.  Ingersoll  does,  shows  a  surprising  ignorance  of 
what  the  white  man  of  this  nineteenth  century  has 
accomplished.  It  is  the  glorious  victory  of  modern 
science  to  have  demolished  such  limitations  on  its 
knowledge.  The  Indian's  knowledge  covers  the  small 
valley  in  which  he  lives.  The  white  man's  extends 
not  only  to  the  larger  state  or  hemisphere  where  he 
has  traveled,  but  to  provinces  where  he  has  never 
been,  where  no  man  has  ever  been.  No  man  has  ever 
seen  the  north  pole  or  the  other  side  of  the  moon  ; 
yet  we  are  as  practically  certain  of  their  existence  and 
character  as  if  we  had  been  there.  We  have  discov- 
ered gases  that  no  sense  has  directly  observed,  rays 
of  the  spectrum  invisible  to  the  eye,  suns  that  no  tele- 
scope has  seen,  yet  whose  courses  and  times  of  revo- 
lution and  velocity  through  the  sky  the  astronomer 
has  carefully  noted,  calculated  and  verified.  And  in 
these  unobserved  suns  of  the  stellar  depths  the  man 
of  science  feels  certain  that  the  laws  of  heat,  light, 
chemic  affinity,  mathematics,  and  geometry,  are  the 
same  as  here.  Below,  in  the  smallest  germ,  science 
finds  force,  law,  growth,  and  rationality.  Above,  in 
the  grandest  and  most  distant  solar  systems,  force, 
law,  growth,  and  rationality  again  are  manifested. 
And  in  whatever  still  undiscovered  galaxies  may  lie 
trillions  of  leagues  beyond,  whose  existence  is  not  yet 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  89 

either  known  or  suspected,  the  same  principles,  we 
feel  certain,  will  still  rule  there  as  here.  As  to  that 
which  it  is  impossible  for  us  ever  to  know,  we  can  of 
course  say  nothing.  That,  however,  can  in  nothing 
affect  or  concern  us.  But  that  which,  although  it  is  as 
yet  unknown,  is  conceivably  knowable,  must  be  recog- 
nized, by  virtue  of  that  knowability,  as  owning  the 
dominion  of  those  principles  by  which  alone  things 
are  knowable. 

Whatever,  then,  lies  outside  the  circle  of  our  abso- 
lute knowledge  does  not  interfere  with  the  practical 
certainties  of  theistic  faith.  The  reason  is  that  this 
modern  science  of  the  white  man  of  the  nineteenth 
century  has  found  out  that  the  whole  universe  is 
woven  out  of  the  same  material  and  spiritual  web. 
The  domain  of  knowledge — not  merely  present  knowl- 
edge, but  potential  knowledge — is  one  coherent  with 
itself  and  with  what  is  already  known.  The  cosmos 
is  a  unity,  from  end  to  end.  The  molecules  of  hydro- 
gen and  sodium  in  these  double  suns  that  the  spec- 
troscope informs  us  of,  though  the  telescope  cannot 
separate  them,  vibrate  in  unison  with  the  sodium 
flames  of  our  own  earth.  The  same  laws  of  gravita- 
tion that  draw  the  falling  penny  that  you  toss  up  in 
the  air  back  to  the  ground,  wheel  the  farthest  galaxies 
around  their  hidden  astronomic  centres,  and  the 
youngest,  mistiest  nebula  of  the  skies  is  proceeding 
on  the  same  path  of  evolution  by  which  our  own 
planet  has  ripened  to  its  present  condition.  The 
various  stages  and  realms  of  nature  are  not  exclusive 
of  one  another,  but  inclusive,  enclosing  one  another 
like  the  nest  of  concentric  shells  which  make  up  a 


90        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

conjurer's  ball.  The  vegetable  kingdom  includes  the 
inorganic  ;  the  animal  kingdom  includes  the  vegetable ; 
the  human  includes  the  animal  and  all  below  it.  And 
so  the  divine,  we  may  feel  sure,  however  higher  and 
grander  than  the  human,  will  not  be  wanting  in  what 
forms  the  glory  of  man. 

Of  course,  we  cannot  wholly  know  God's  nature ; 
but  as  little  can  we  know  ourselves,  and  yet  be  wholly 
ignorant  of  Him.  The  divine  attributes  are  loftier  and 
more  numerous  than  the  human.  But,  by  the  law  we 
have  just  stated,  they  are  not  alien  and  without  rela- 
tion to  the  human,  but  inclusive  of  the  human. 
Whatever  higher  qualities  God  has.  He  is  at  least  as 
wise,  at  least  as  just  and  good,  as  the  human  children 
He  has  brought  into  being;  and,  even  as  to  that 
higher  and  mysterious  centre  of  Divinity  which  is  ever 
to  remain  a  mystery,  we  may  at  least  feel  sure  of  this, 
— that  the  direction  in  which  it  lies  is  the  direction  of 
man's  own  highest  powers,  not  that  of  the  inferior  and 
more  meagre  qualities  of  dead  matter. 

This  is  the  simple  course  of  reasoning  by  which  the 
religious  thinkers  of  to-day  feel  sure  that  the  grand 
universe  about  them  is  no  wheel-work  of  unconscious 
machinery,  but  the  organism  of  a  boundless  Life  and 
superior  Reason.  The  universe  is  permeated  with 
order.  All  its  forces  and  laws  are  unitary.  It  is  ever 
climbing  forward,  pushing  upward,  growing  and  un- 
folding. 

This  order  and  growth  proceed  according  to  ideal 
laws  and  conceptions,  exhibit  intelligible  plans  and 
purposes.  The  laws  of  the  arrangement  of  the  leaves 
on  the  stem  and  of  the  planets  wheeling  about  their 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  91 

solar  centres  conform  to  one  and  the  same  mathe- 
matical formula.  The  grand  current  of  the  universe 
is  ever  towards  the  righteous  and  the  beneficent.  The 
history  of  man  exhibits  a  steady  moral  progress.  The 
course  of  evolution  progressively  exalts  conscious 
personality  and  strengthens  the  foundations  of  justice, 
suppresses  the  lower  and  carnal,  and  refines,  diffuses, 
and  enthrones  in  power  the  spiritual. 

How  do  these  qualities  thus  steadily  emerge  more 
and  more  in  nature  and  man,  unless  they  exist  in  their 
cause  ?  We  can  have  no  appearance  unless  there  is 
something  to  appear.  No  blossom  is  evolved  unless 
there  is  a  seed, — a  cause  from  which  it  is  evolved. 
These  phenomena  of  nature  and  man  manifest,  then, 
the  action  and  character  of  the  supreme  Cause.  At 
the  heart  of  this  self-moving,  growing  universe,  there 
must  be  that  as  has  been  already  suggested,  which 
alone  can  initiate  motion,  can  grow, — namely,  a  Life ; 
a  life  vast  and  all-powerful  enough  to  produce  what 
we  see  that  it  does  produce.  And  this  universal  Life 
cannot  work  with  such  wondrous  intelligence,  justice, 
and  beneficence,  it  cannot  be  imagined  stirring  us  to 
love  and  righteousness  as  it  does,  unless  there  were  in 
it  an  intelligence,  rectitude,  and  loving  kindness  equal 
to  our  own  loftiest  aspirations.  Surely,  when  we  feel 
ourselves  commanded  with  such  an  unconditional  im- 
perative to  do  our  duty  and  to  love  our  neighbor  that 
even  life  itself  must  be  sacrificed  to  obey  it,  we  cannot 
believe  that  it  is  from  any  being  himself  loveless  or 
from  any  force  or  power  itself  immoral  and  insensate 
that  we  should  have  been  charged  with  such  insistent 
duties. 


92        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

The  facts  of  the  world,  then,  seem  plainly  to  point 
to  intelligence  and  benevolence,  so  high  and  wide  that 
we  can  fix  no  bounds  to  them,  as  characterizing  the 
supreme  source  and  life  of  the  world. 

But  here  the  agnostic  interposes  with  fresh  dif- 
ficulties. If  God  be  good,  how  comes  it  that  justice  is 
so  often  thwarted,  that  innocence  is  not  a  perfect 
shield,  that  famines  Hke  that  of  India  to-day  are  per- 
mitted to  occur  ? 

In  the  problem  of  evil  we  have  a  serious  difficulty, 
— the  oldest  and  gravest  difficulty  to  belief  in  a  God 
worthy  of  our  worship.  But,  while  it  is  a  difficulty, 
the  difficulties  on  the  other  side,  in  rejecting  the  idea 
of  any  divine  causation  or  any  beneficent  purpose,  are 
far  greater.  If  the  source  from  which  humanity 
springs  be  but  dead  mechanism,  destitute  of  goodness, 
whence  came  this  human  pity  ?  Mr.  Ingersoll's  own 
indignant  protest  against  such  a  doctrine  as  that  of 
eternal  hell  or  against  the  unmerited  sufferings  of  the 
innocent, — this  and  every  other  manifestation  of 
human  compassion  and  indignation  against  wrong, 
such  as  our  skeptics  and  agnostics  are  so  often  found 
expressing,  are  the  strongest  presumption  of  the  divine 
goodness  and  righteousness.  Can  God  have  put  this 
instinct  of  the  lawful  desert  of  virtue,  of  the  injustice 
of  purposeless,  unmerited  suffering,  into  His  children's 
hearts,  and  no  similar  feeling  be  in  His  own  heart  ? 
Does  the  agnostic  really  fancy  that  in  himself  there  is 
a  tenderness  of  soul  superior  to  that  of  his  Creator  ? 
Or,  if  he  insist  still  in  arguing  on  the  materialistic 
basis,  does  he  really  believe  that  he  has  a  sense  of 
justice  and  impulse  of  good  will  beyond  all  that  this 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  93 

great  universe  that  moulded  and  cradled  him  pos- 
sesses, so  that,  if  the  universe  could  but  wake  up  to 
consciousness  for  a  moment,  it  would  be  astonished  at 
the  new  and  superior  attributes  that  this  human  pygmy 
has  attained  to  ?  That  would,  indeed,  be  most  colos- 
sal conceit.  But,  if  we  are  not  to  puff  ourselves  out 
with  such  arrogance,  then  we  must  trust  that  there  is 
some  satisfactory  explanation  to  this  problem  of  evil, 
dark  as  it  seems, — an  explanation  entirely  consistent 
with  God's  goodness. 

And  we  can,  in  fact,  see  no  little  way  into  the 
enigma.  Evil  is  only  incidental,  the  scaffolding, 
shavings,  and  rubbish,  as  it  were,  of  nature's  building, 
all  to  be  removed  or  utilized  later  on.  No  nerve  is 
made  on  purpose  to  ache.  The  pain  is  but  the  danger- 
signal,  to  warn  against  more  serious  injuries.  Disease, 
decay,  and  death  are  the  accompaniment  of  laws 
that  promote  or  guard  life, — the  autumn  dropping  of 
the  leaves  on  the  great  cosmic  tree,  to  prepare  for  the 
new  growth  and  beauty  of  a  more  glorious  spring- 
time. Man's  passions,  though  the  source  of  so  large 
a  part  of  his  miseries,  are  yet  the  motor  powers  of  all 
his  social  and  moral  progress,  the  channel  of  life,  the 
physical  basis  of  love  and  of  all  that  is  most  precious 
in  existence. 

Another  great  part  of  so-called  evil  is  relative. 
Yesterday  it  was  a  good  eagerly  grasped.  To  all 
those  below  us  in  the  social  scale  it  is  still  a  coveted 
boon.  To  the  infinite  vision,  perhaps,  that  hardship 
which  it  works  for  us  is  but  a  blessing  in  disguise,  a 
spur  to  drive  us  on  to  a  still  higher  good.  Again, 
take  out  of  the  world  all  the  evil  that  is  due  to  human 


94        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

agency,  and  how  large  a  part  would  be  gone !  But 
all  this  is  plainly  incidental  to  a  greater  good, — to  our 
moral  freedom  and  our  ability  to  learn  from  experi- 
ence and  be  trained  up  in  moral  and  spiritual  excel- 
lence. Mr.  Ingersoll  himself  has  said, ''  If  man  could 
not  suffer,  the  words  '  right '  and  '  wrong '  would  never 
have  been  spoken."  Is  the  insentient  creature,  then, 
better  than  the  moral  man?  Not  so.  The  develop- 
ment of  man's  moral  character,  the  refining  of  his 
spiritual  personality,  the  development  of  pity  and 
sympathy,  virtue  and  self-sacrifice,  would  all  have 
been  impossible  in  a  world  where  evil  was  unknown. 
Would  that  have  been  a  better  world  than  this  ?  I 
believe  it  would  have  been  a  worse  world, — certainly, 
a  far  inferior  world  to  this.  Its  peace  would  have 
been  the  peace  of  death.  The  development  of  the 
human  soul  is  worth  more  than  all  the  pain  it  costs, 
worth  all  the  mistakes  and  sins  through  which  it  is 
reached.  It  is  only  in  the  furnace  of  affliction  that 
the  purest  gold  of  character  is  refined.  And  no  one 
who  has  ever  borne  suffering  aright,  who  has  under- 
stood its  purpose  as  a  process  of  spiritual  purification 
and  perfection,  has  complained  that  it  was  incom- 
patible with  God's  love  to  His  children.  To  the  ma- 
terialist who  says  "  Death  ends  all,"  it  may  seem  ex- 
cessive and  useless.  But  where  there  is  faith  in  a 
future  life  for  which  this  is  the  training  school,  where 
there  is  believed  to  be  an  eternity  of  life  in  which  God 
can  make  up  to  each  soul  for  all  it  has  suffered,  and 
bring  all  this  ooze  and  mud  of  earth  to  its  purposed 
blossoming  in  a  heavenly  clime,  there  this  cloud  of 
evil  turns  out  its  silver  lining  before  the  eye ;  and  we 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  95 

rejoice  to  see  how  "  from  seeming  evil "  God  is  ever 
"  educing  good,  and,  better  yet  again,  in  infinite 
progression." 

The  great  poet  of  EngHsh  ideaHsm  has  well  spoken 
of  "  truths  that  wake  to  perish  never." 

Amongst  these  eternal  possessions  of  the  human 
heart  the  foremost  of  all  is  the  faith  in  the  Divine 
Existence.  Religion  need  have  no  real  fear  that  that 
grand  thought  shall  suffer  any  permanent  eclipse.  It 
is  the  light  of  all  our  seeing ;  and  they  who  think  they 
deny  Him  but  thrust  aside  some  imperfect  conception 
of  Him,  only  to  vindicate  the  Divine  essence  under 
some  other  guise. 

"  I'm  an  atheist,  thank  God ! "  cried  a  blundering 
boaster  of  his  irreligion.  And  most  denials  of  Deity 
testify  in  the  very  same  breath  to  a  like  unconscious 
faith  in  the  Inevitable  One.  If  we  cannot  grasp  Him, 
it  is  because  He  clasps  us.  If  we  cannot  see  Him,  it 
is  because  He  is  the  all-enveloping  medium  of  mortal 
vision.  If  we  fancy  our  prayers  needless,  it  is  because 
He  has  loved  and  blessed  us  already  too  much  beyond 
our  deserts.  And  in  the  very  sigh  of  the  weary  soul 
that  cannot  find  Him,  He  returns  to  assure  us  that  we 
cannot  lose  Him,  even  if  we  would. 

It  is  true  that  all  our  inductions  from  observation, 
all  the  generalizations  and  inferences  that  nature 
authorizes,  still  fall  short  of  giving  us  the  attributes 
and  the  measure  of  the  truly  divine. 

We  may  reach  by  such  scientific  methods,  to  be- 
lief in  a  cosmic  being  who  is  indefinitely  immense, 
but  not  infinite ;  inconceivably  enduring,  but  not 
eternal ;  wonderfully  wise,  but  not  omniscient ;  pure 


96        THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

as  our  purest  ideal,  but  not  absolutely  perfect ;  vastly 
superhuman,  but  not  supernatural ;  grand  and  ma- 
jestic, indeed,  but  still  limited  and  finite.  For,  as  we 
discern  this  Being  only  by  His  manifestations  in  the 
universe,  we  have  no  right  to  attribute  to  Him  any- 
thing beyond  the  measure  experienced  in  that  universe ; 
and  nowhere  in  the  actual  universe  can  we  discern 
that  which  is  absolutely  unlimited,  absolutely  exempt 
from  hability  to  imperfection.  What  warrant,  then, 
have  we  for  that  infinitude,  eternity,  omniscience,  and 
perfection  that  constitute  the  really  divine  attributes 
of  God? 

Yes,  I  admit  that  the  physical  universe  manifests 
nowhere  these  highest  attributes  of  the  divine.  The 
knowledge  of  them  is  not  to  be  drawn  from  the  con- 
templation of  nature.  These  are  given,  not  by  obser- 
vation or  logical  inference,  but  by  intuition  and 
spiritual  suggestion,  the  more  direct  vision  of  the 
soul  that  sees  beyond  the  boundary  of  actual  or 
possible  experience  into  the  realm  of  pure  truth.  It 
is  the  straighter  entrance  into  the  mind,  and  the  clear 
recognition  by  consciousness  of  that  revealing  light 
which  God  imparts  to  humanity.  The  warrant  of  the 
validity  of  these  intuitions  is  the  same  that  warrants 
the  lower  intuitions  on  which  science  is  based,  viz., 
their  irrepressible  existence,  "their  persistency  in 
consciousness  " ;  "  the  inexplicability  of  their  arising 
or  continuing  in  our  behef,  unless  corresponding  to 
realities  "  (to  use  Spencer's  criterion) ;  "  the  complete 
satisfaction  which  is  thus  given  to  the  needs  of  the 
intellect "  (to  use  Tyndall's  test).  If  our  ultimate  and 
necessary  belief  in  the  persistence  of  force,  the  inde- 


THE  AGNOSTIC'S  DIFFICULTIES  97 

structibility  of  matter,  and  the  uniformity  of  nature 
be  good  proof  of  these  basic  laws  of  science  (and  re- 
member :  they  are  the  only  proof  there  is  of  them) ; 
if  the  inexpugnable  consciousness  of  the  existence  of 
an  ultimate  reality  behind  appearance  establish  that 
grand  truth  (as  Herbert  Spencer  tells  us  it  does,  and 
founds  his  whole  system  of  evolution  on  it);  if  the 
fulfilment  of  the  desire  of  the  reason  which  the  lumi- 
niferous  ether  gives  should  be  accepted  as  good  evi- 
dence for  its  reality  (as  Professor  Tyndall  tells  the 
world  it  should) ;  why  is  not  the  same  kind  of  proof 
vahd  evidence  for  these  spiritual  truths,  these  higher 
attributes  of  the  divine  nature?  Certainly,  no  one 
who  accepts  the  current  theories  or  the  established 
principles  of  science  can  rightly  object  to  the 
reasoning. 

And  if  by  the  rigid  methods  of  induction,  starting 
from  the  widest  observation  and  proceeding  by  the 
most  rigorous  logic,  we  can  lay  the  scientific  founda- 
tions of  religion  in  the  existence  of  a  Being  incon- 
ceivably immense  and  enduring,  grand  as  the  universe, 
beneficent  and  pure  as  our  highest  ideal,  wise  and 
majestic  beyond  all  standards  of  human  wisdom  or 
material  majesty,  then  we  have  all  that  is  needed  for 
humanity's  worshipful  instincts ;  and  we  may  properly 
expand  this  divine  ideal  in  the  glow  of  imagination  to 
that  infinite  and  absolute  plenitude  of  eternal  per- 
fection that  is  required  for  the  complete  satisfaction 
alike  of  the  adoring  heart  and  the  thinking  reason. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    SCIENTIFIC  VALIDITY  OF   OUR   RELIGIOUS 
INSTINCTS. 

In  the  history  of  religion  there  is  nothing  more 
astonishing,  both  to  its  friends  and  its  foes,  than  the 
ineffectiveness  of  the  heaviest  argumentative  bombard- 
ments in  driving  out  faith  in  spiritual  things  from  the 
stronghold  of  popular  belief.  When  the  agnostic 
peruses  some  new  critique  of  the  theistic  argument  or 
the  latest  examination  of  the  belief  in  a  future  life,  he 
throws  his  hat  in  the  air  in  exultation,  confident  that 
the  superstition  cannot  survive  such  another  fatal  ex- 
posure, and  timid  Christians  themselves  turn  pale  with 
apprehension  of  the  coming  downfall  of  the  church. 
But  when,  the  nine  days'  wonder  over,  the  new  dia- 
lectical or  scientific  cannona-de  has  passed  by,  the  flag 
of  Christian  trust  and  hope  is  seen  floating  as  jubi- 
lantly as  ever  over  the  ancient  walls.  The  wise  come 
to  a  recognition  of  the  truth  that  it  was  not  chiefly  by 
logical  or  scientific  scaling-ladders  that  man  has 
mounted  to  the  heights  of  religious  conviction,  and 
therefore  that  it  avails  little  to  pull  them  away. 

That  from  which  religion  ever  wells  up  afresh  from 
age  to  age  is  the  spiritual  capacity  of  humanity, 
sensitive  to  the  subtile  touches  of  the  unseen  world 
and  the  indwelling  divine  life.  The  laws  of  thought, 
within  whose  narrow  circle  logic  is  confined,  make  it 
98 


VALIDITY  OF  OUR  RELIGIOUS  INSTINCTS  99 

difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  prove  satisfactorily  not 
a  few  of  the  propositions  of  theism.  Nevertheless  the 
forces  of  feeling  and  the  tides  of  life,  which  are  ever 
pressing  us  over  the  logical  boundary-lines  towards  the 
Infinite,  keep  the  sacred  beliefs  of  religion  perennially 
alive.  Against  all  the  subtilties  of  the  dialecticians, 
in  the  face  of  all  the  discoveries  of  the  scientists,  the 
heart  makes  its  undying  protests.  However  little,  in 
strictness  of  logic,  we  may  be  able  to  prove,  the  faiths 
of  our  higher  nature  remain  with  us,  and  we  say,  with 
England's  poet  laureate : 

"  I  think  we  are  not  wholly  brain, 
Magnetic  mockeries ;  not  in  vain 
Like  Paul  with  beasts,  I  fought  with  death ; 

*'  Not  only  cunning  casts  in  clay ; 

Let  science  prove  we  are,  and  then 
"What  matters  science  unto  men  ? 
At  least  to  me,  I  would  not  stay. 

«  Let  him  the  wiser  man  who  springs 
Hereafter,  up  from  childhood  shape 
His  action  like  the  greater  ape ; 
But  I  was  born  to  other  things." 

Such  is  the  flat  defiance  of  the  heart  to  the  worst 
that  logical  analysis  or  physical  investigation  can  do. 

Now,  to  the  scientific  man  this  seems  sheer  senti- 
mentalism.  In  his  opinion  we  have  no  business  (the 
religious  man  no  more  than  any  one  else)  to  introduce 
the  agitations  of  the  emotions  to  disturb  the  con- 
clusions of  the  intellect.  *•  Every  one,"  says  Biichner, 
"  may,  of  course,  have  convictions  of  the  heart ;  but  to 
mix  them  up  with  philosophical  questions  is  unscien- 


100      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

tific."  The  only  question  that  the  scientific  world 
will  admit  as  pertinent,  in  reference  to  the  acceptance 
of  a  theory,  is  the  question  of  its  truth  or  falsehood. 
If  a  theory  accords  with  reason  or  experience,  then  it 
is  true  and  is  to  be  accepted.  If  it  does  not  so  accord, 
then  it  is  not  true,  and  is  to  be  rejected.  The  ques- 
tion of  its  pleasantness  or  unpleasantness  to  one's 
tastes,  prepossessions,  or  instincts  is  not  to  be  consid- 
ered for  a  moment. 

Now,  to  this  demand  for  the  pure  truth,  the  simple 
fact,  I  entirely  assent,  and  I  say  that  religion  also 
must  assent.  Truth  is  her  sovereign,  quite  as  much 
as  that  of  science.  It  is  "  they  that  are  of  the  truth," 
said  Christ,  that  "  hear  my  voice."  The  true  Christian 
disciple  is  known  by  his  allegiance  to  the  genuine  and 
the  real,  by  the  earnestness  with  which  he  seeks  to 
conform  his  thought  and  faith  to  the  actualities  of  the 
world.  For  a  people  that  calls  itself  Christian  to 
make  pleasant  falsities  the  objects  of  its  worship,  and 
"  make-believe "  the  staple  of  its  religion,  would  be 
the  saddest  spectacle  the  sun  anywhere  could  shine 
upon.  Truth,  however  distasteful,  is  better  than  the 
sweet  poison  of  delusion. 

I  accept  truth,  then,  i.  e.y  the  evidence  of  the  facts, 
as  the  one  thing  which  should  determine  our  faiths. 
But  does  this  require  that  we  should  straightway  dis- 
miss all  the  instincts  of  the  heart  as  incompetent  to 
testify  at  all  in  religious  things,  and  admit  to  the  judi- 
cial balances  only  stone  fossils  and  iced  syllogisms  ? 
Grant  that  truth  is  the  one  decisive  thing,  and  the 
question  arises  at  once :  What  is  truth,  and  how  can 
you  determine  it  ?     The  moment  that  you  advance  to 


VALIDITY  OF  OUR  RELIGIOUS  INSTINCTS         101 

the  determination  of  this  question  :  "  What  is  truth  ?  " 
you  must  recognize  that  there  are  many  questions  in 
which  the  accord  or  the  discord  of  the  theory  with 
our  native  constitution  is  a  most  weighty  considera- 
tion in  determining  what  truth  is. 

Facts  are,  indeed,  what  we  must  follow ;  but  lumps 
of  matter  and  vibratory  motions,  pressed  plants  and 
ticketed  beetles  are  not  the  only  facts  in  existence. 
The  inextinguishable  longings  of  the  human  soul, 
from  which  religions  spring,  are  also  facts,  and  as 
good  testimonies  and  signs  in  determining  truth  as 
bug  or  polyp  is.  Even  in  relation  to  a  spider  or  a  bee, 
statements  in  regard  to  their  form,  weight,  color,  and 
other  material  characteristics  are  not  the  only  scien- 
tific facts  of  importance.  The  naturalist  must  record, 
as  matter  of  equal  or  greater  gravity,  their  mental 
qualities,  the  tastes  of  the  one  for  insect  prey,  of  the 
other  for  honey ;  the  instinct  of  the  one  to  spin  its 
webs,  of  the  other  to  build  and  stock  its  cells ;  the 
varied  impulses  that  move  each  in  their  different  ways 
of  providing  for  the  perpetuation  of  their  respective 
species. 

So,  in  regard  to  man,  a  knowledge  of  his  immaterial 
characteristics  is  still  more  essential  to  a  full  scientific 
knowledge  of  him  than  a  knowledge  of  his  material 
qualities.  His  desires  and  longings  ;  those  higher  im- 
pulses that  move  him  to  acts  which  are  incompre- 
hensible, if  his  being  is  interpreted  as  a  purely  ma- 
terial one ;  those  universal  intuitions  which  are  the 
very  condition  of  observation  and  the  justification  of 
all  reasoning,  yet  which  pass  quite  beyond  the  strict 
boundaries  of  either  logic  or  empiricism,  these  are  the 


102      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  TEE  NEW  THOUGHT 

most  important  of  all  facts  about  him.  And  not  only 
are  they  facts,  but  they  are  facts  that  speak  of  more 
than  the  character  of  their  possessor.  They  are  facts 
that  disclose  also  the  nature  of  the  world  in  which  he 
lives,  and  the  nature  of  the  beings  with  whom  he  is 
connected. 

Recall  for  a  moment  a  few  analogies.  The  building 
propensity  which  urges  the  tamed  beaver,  kept  in  a 
house,  to  strive  continually  to  construct  dams,  would 
assure  us,  (did  we  never  directly  observe  the  fact),  of 
the  flowing  stream,  which  is  the  creature's  native 
haunt.  The  groping  of  the  new-born  lamb  for  the 
mother's  dugs  speaks  plainly  of  the  food  there,  meet 
for  the  satisfaction  of  its  craving.  The  sexual  appetite 
implies  the  answering  sex;  and  the  bird's  nest-building 
and  brooding  instinct  is  prophetic  of  the  coming  gen- 
eration, and  correspondent  to  its  needs.  Every  part  in 
nature,  having  been  moulded  by  the  whole,  speaks  of 
that  whole,  and  bids  us  believe  that  whatever  is  needed 
as  its  complement  exists  somewhere  and  somehow. 
If  no  telescope  had  yet  revealed  Neptune,  neverthe- 
less, the  need  of  that  additional  planet  to  explain  the 
perturbations  of  Uranus  would  assure  astronomers  of 
its  existence.  When  an  Agassiz  discovers,  on  the 
summit  of  some  mountain,  thousands  of  miles  from 
the  sea,  the  remains  of  creatures  with  gills  and  fins  and 
swimming-bladder,  he  is  sure  of  the  existence  in  that 
region,  at  some  past  period,  of  the  lake  or  sea  to  whose 
aquatic  environment  these  organs  are  correlated.  Why 
so  ?  Simply  because  these  creatures  needed  this  watery 
element  for  the  use  of  the  organs  with  which  we  see 
them  endowed. 


VALIDITY  OF  OUR  RELIGIOUS  INSTINCTS         103 

This  is  the  customary  method  of  scientific  reasoning, 
a  guiding  principle  of  discovery  in  nature,  viz.,  that 
nowhere  in  the  world  do  we  find  a  permanent  general 
need  in  a  living  species  unless  there  exists  some  supply 
adjusted  to  it.  There  is  not  a  naturalist  who  thinks 
of  disputing  this,  or  who,  if  he  did,  could  make  a  step 
of  progress  in  his  knowledge  of  ancient  times. 

Now,  this  same  law  holds  in  the  realm  of  human  exist- 
ence. Whatever  needs  man's  soul  feels,  whatever  im- 
pulses are  native  to  his  spirit,  whatever  insights  his  spirit- 
ual vision  can  attain  to,  give  evidence  as  to  the  real  na- 
ture of  the  world  in  which  he  was  developed  and  the  real 
agency  of  the  operations  going  on  about  him,  equally 
significant  and  valid  as  the  laws  which  the  senses  indi- 
cate or  to  which  the  reason  testifies. 

But  just  here  the  scientific  objector  would  doubtless 
interpose,  and  ask  us  if  we  are  acquainted  with  the 
epoch-making  work  of  Mr.  Darwin  and  Mr.  Spencer, 
and  if  we  think  that,  in  view  of  their  discoveries,  this 
argument  still  has  force.  Mr.  Darwin  and  Mr.  Spencer, 
our  scientific  friends  assure  us,  have  shown  conclusively 
that  instinct  and  intuition  are  mere  products  of  multi- 
tudinous ancestral  experiences,  accumulated  and  fused 
into  these  seemingly  different  things  by  the  combined 
action  of  habit,  association  of  ideas,  and  heredity. 
Though  in  the  individual  they  may  seem  innate,  in 
the  race  they  are  not  so,  but  are  results  of  its  experi- 
ence ;  they  are  developments  of  low,  gross  impulses, 
and  therefore  are  not  worthy  to  be  taken  as  witnesses 
to  the  fundamental  truths  of  religion. 

Suppose  we  grant  this  origin  of  our  cravings, 
instincts,  and  intuitions.     Let  our  highest  intuitions 


104      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

and  aspirations,  all  the  most  delica.te  forms  of  the  con- 
scious Hfe  of  to-day,  be  regarded  as  but  the  accumu- 
lated principal  and  interest  of  all  that  has  been  felt  or 
known  by  every  organism  in  the  ascending  line,  from 
the  primordial  life-cell  up  to  man.  Grant  all  this,  and 
what  is  the  consequence?  Does  it  overthrow  the 
validity  of  our  instinctive  feelings  and  intuitive  ideas ; 
or,  rather,  does  it  not  solidly  establish  them  ? 

For  what  are  the  principles  ruling  in  this  develop- 
ment of  the  soul  ?  First  and  foremost,  the  principle 
of  adjustment  of  the  inner  to  the  outer,  of  the  mental 
to  the  material.  The  very  definition  of  Hfe  given  by 
Herbert  Spencer  is,  "  the  continuous  adjustment  of 
internal  relations  to  external  relations."  We  dis- 
tinguish between  a  live  object  and  a  dead  one, 
Spencer  points  out,  by  noticing  whether  a  change  in 
its  conditions  will  be  followed  by  a  change  in  the 
object  itself.  Stir  it  with  a  stick,  or  shout  at  it,  and 
its  immobility  or  its  action  tells  us  whether  it  is  inani- 
mate or  animate.  In  the  living  organism,  not  only  is 
there  always  some  response  to  the  outside  world  and  its 
events,  but  there  is  a  fitting  response.  The  rumina- 
ting organs  correspond  to  a  flora  of  herbs  and  grass. 
The  stinging  contractile  power  of  a  polyp's  tentacles 
corresponds,  says  Spencer,  to  the  sensitiveness  and 
strength  of  the  creatures  serving  it  for  prey.  Accord- 
ing to  the  need  for  more  varied  and  more  rapid 
adjustment  of  the  internal  relations  to  the  outer 
relations,  the  inward  organs  are  more  and  more  com- 
plicated and  efificient.  The  degree  of  life  varies  as  the 
degree  of  correspondence,  from  the  seaweed  in  its 
simple  environment  up  to  infinitely  complex  man,  in 


VALIDITY  OF  OUR  RELIGIOUS  INSTINCTS         105 

his  infinitely  varied  circumstances.  Wherever  there 
is  a  gap  between  the  inner  and  the  outer  relations, 
there  the  organism  modifies  itself  to  fit  the  circum- 
stances, and  to  close  up  the  gap.  The  touch  of  nature 
upon  the  living  creature,  and  the  response  of  life  to 
that  physical  impress,  moulds  the  two  into  harmony. 
The  fur-clad  northern  animal  sheds  its  fur  in  the  south. 
The  creature  from  a  warm  climate,  thinly  clad  or 
naked,  develops,  in  a  colder  zone,  a  warmer  clothing. 
The  greyhound,  brought  to  the  rarefied  air  of  the 
Mexican  table-land,  unable  in  the  first  generation  to 
exert  itself  as  usual  without  panting  and  exhaustion, 
in  the  second  generation  unfolds  a  new  breathing 
capacity,  and  regains  the  speed,  characteristic  of  the 
species.  Spencer's  and  Darwin's  works  form  a  treasury 
of  illustrations  of  this  continual  adjustment  of  the  or- 
ganism to  its  environment.  It  is  the  very  condition 
of  the  creature's  existence,  says  Mr.  Darwin,  that  he 
shall  exactly  fit  himself  to  the  world  about  him.  Death 
to  his  species,  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  is  the  sure 
penalty  for  not  thus  fitting  himself  to  the  facts  of  the 
world.  He  cannot  carry  any  load  of  useless  organ  or 
faculty,  or  the  extra  weight  will  cause  him  to  lose  the 
race.  As  soon  as  an  organ  is  no  longer  of  use,  it 
begins  to  shrivel  and  tends  to  degeneration  and 
extinction.  Mr.  Darwin  challenged  the  production 
of  an  instance  where  any  organ,  absolutely  without 
use  in  the  struggle  for  life,  continued  for  any  length 
of  time  to  be  fully  developed. 

Such,  then,  is  the  first  great  principle  that  governs 
in  the  evolution  of  life,  viz.,  that  life  is  constantly  and 
necessarily   correspondent   to   the   universe   without. 


106      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

Now,  apply  this  to  the  question  of  reUgion,  and  what 
is  its  bearing  ?  Only  a  new  and  stronger  confirmation 
of  our  position,  that  the  innate  idea  bespeaks  an  ob- 
jective reality  corresponding  to  it.  The  persistent 
inward  state,  the  constant  moral  and  spiritual  needs 
of  man,  his  ever-renewed  beliefs  (whatever  they  are), 
inform  us  of  the  persistent  outward  fact  to  which  they 
are  correlated.  For  did  the  external  reality  not  exist, 
the  inward  adjustment  never  would  have  arisen.  Or, 
if  by  some  chance  it  had  come  into  existence,  then, 
having  no  correspondent  object  to  sustain,  renew,  and 
keep  it  true,  it  must,  under  the  influence  of  the 
equilibrating  tendencies,  either  pass  away  or  shift  its 
form,  until  it  reached  a  state  of  natural  equilibrium 
with  its  environment. 

Or,  take  the  other  great  principle  of  the  develop- 
ment theory,  that  of  descent  or  heredity.  Suppose, 
as  this  theory  asks  us  to  beUeve,  that  our  religious 
intuitions  and  our  moral  sense  are  only  refinements  of 
our  social  instincts ;  and  that  these  are  but  modifica- 
tions of  lower  brute  impulses ;  and  these,  again,  have 
been  derived  and  transformed,  somehow,  out  of  the 
attractions,  repulsions,  and  other  activities  common  to 
all  matter  and  force.  Nay,  we  will  suppose  the  truth 
even  of  Professor  Huxley's  theory,  that  we  are  really 
only  automata,  that  our  feelings,  thoughts,  and  aspira- 
tions are  necessary  results  of  the  sum  of  motions  of 
matter  and  impulses  of  force  in  the  midst  of  which 
they  arise.  We  will  look  upon  that  which  we  call  the 
soul  as  formed  gradually  from  the  necessary  interaction 
of  nature's  energies ;  not  as  an  existence  of  a  different 
kind  and  substance,  but  only  a  subtler  product  of  the 


VALIDITY  OF  OUR  BELIQIOUS  INSTINCTS         107 

cosmic  forces,  risen  thus  to  consciousness.  What  fol- 
lows, then?  Is  the  logical  result  not  this,  that  if  we 
inherit  from  the  material  world  itself,  its  laws  must  be 
registered  not  only  in  our  bodies  but  in  our  minds  ? 
Our  consciousness,  on  this  theory,  is  but  the  liberation 
of  the  dumb  life  and  reason  of  the  cosmos.  The  laws 
of  the  mind  are  its  laws,  precisely  because  they  were 
beforehand  the  laws  of  that  greater  whole,  nature,  of 
which  mind  is  but  a  more  specialized  part.  A  con- 
stant association  in  the  heart's  instincts  and  wants  im- 
plies a  constant  association  in  the  outer  world. 

The  logical  connection  is  a  necessary  one.  For  on 
this  automaton  theory  of  the  mind  no  free-will  can 
disturb  the  necessary  and  proper  conclusion.  The 
general  laws  of  the  mind,  the  universal  beliefs  of  man, 
whatever  they  are,  must  result  from  the  primitive  facts 
of  the  universe,  with  as  little  chance  of  error  as  in  the 
calculations  of  a  calculating  machine  from  the  data 
with  which  it  starts. 

If,  then,  this  human  sensibility  of  ours,  the  first 
conscious  expression  of  the  hidden  life  forces  of  the 
universe,  should  shrink  from  such  an  idea  as  that  of  a 
personal  God,  and  turn  instinctively  to  views  such  as 
are  offered  us  by  the  materialists,  then,  I  admit,  we 
ought  to  reject  religion  as  false  and  accept  atheism  as 
true.  But  if,  on  the  contrary,  this  inner  force  of 
nature,  when  liberated  and  expressed  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  humanity,  with  one  general  voice  should  be 
found  confessing  its  natural  belief  in  a  creative  mind ; 
if,  in  its  heart  of  hearts,  it  feels  daily  the  need  for  such 
an  object  of  worship  and  trust,  and  recoils  with  an 
unconquerable   aversion   from  every  godless  theory, 


108      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

then  we  have,  in  such  testimony  of  the  heart,  sound 
logical  proof  of  the  facts  to  which  these  instincts  of 
the  heart  correspond.  They  testify  to  the  existence, 
as  facts  in  the  encircling  universe,  of  those  grand 
realities  which,  by  iterated  and  reiterated  impressions 
on  the  plastic  organization  of  man,  have  stamped  upon 
it  these  ineffaceable  ideas.  If  the  thought  of  infinity 
is  indispensable  in  the  ideal  world,  then  it  is  an  essen- 
tial element  in  the  real  world.  If  we  feel  universally 
a  power  within  ourselves,  urging  us  to  righteousness, 
then  we  know  there  is  a  power,  not  ourselves,  working 
for  that  same  righteousness. 

Do  we  find  faith  in  a  perfect  wisdom  impressed  on 
the  sensitive  tablets  of  our  souls  ?  Then  there  is  im- 
plied, in  that  grand  cosmic  die  that  formed  the  im- 
press, an  equally  infalHble  intelligence.  Do  we  find, 
again,  within  the  evolved  microcosm,  man,  an  insati- 
able hunger  for  a  fuller  love  and  an  imperative  need 
of  a  more  helpful  sympathy  than  man  can  give  ? 
Then  we  may  be  sure  that  without,  in  the  macrocosm 
that  evolved  the  human  miniature,  there  is  the  divine 
affection  corresponding  thereto. 

To  ask,  then,  in  regard  to  any  theory  proposed  for 
our  acceptance,  whether  or  not  it  is  in  harmony  with 
our  natural  instincts,  is  not  an  illogical  sentimentalism, 
but  a  consideration  of  real  weight  in  deciding  whether 
or  not  it  is  to  be  accepted  as  true.  The  instincts  of 
the  heart,  the  intuitions  of  the  mind,  the  aversions  and 
longings  of  the  soul,  afford  indications,  not  to  be  over- 
looked by  any  careful  reasoner,  as  to  the  great  realities 
in  the  cosmos  which  have  shaped  and  moulded  them. 
The  latest  scientific  theories,   instead  of  invalidating 


VALIDITY  OF  OUR  RELIGIOUS  INSTINCTS         109 

such  testimony,  approve  its  competency.  Let  us, 
then,  turn  to  human  nature,  and  see  what  its  testimony 
really  is. 

Is  human  nature  adapted  to  atheism  or  to  theism  ? 
Do  materialistic  theories  or  religious  convictions  best 
satisfy  the  human  heart  ?  These  questions  need  but  a 
brief  consideration,  so  preponderantly  do  the  facts  all 
lie  on  one  side.  The  whole  history  of  humanity  testi- 
fies to  its  religious  tendencies  and  adaptations,  and  the 
violence  to  its  highest  instincts  which  every  anti- 
religious  system  offers.  In  every  human  soul  there  is 
a  thirst  for  something  above  all  that  the  senses  can 
give.  There  is  an  attraction  to  the  infinite  and  per- 
fect, and  a  groping  after  the  sight  and  knowledge  of 
it.  The  dimmest  shadows  of  this  Infinite  Being  fill 
man  with  awe  and  reverence.  Impelled  by  sacred  im- 
pulses, often  scarcely  understood,  but  still  urging  him 
on,  man  bows  in  worship  to  the  holy  mystery.  As 
the  schoolhouse  exhibits  man's  desire  for  knowledge 
and  the  court-house  his  sense  of  justice,  so  the  edifice 
of  prayer  and  praise,  holiest  structure  in  every  land, 
witnesses  to  the  religious  instinct  in  man.  It  matters 
not  what  different  forms  these  may  have,  the  stone 
circle  of  the  Druid  or  the  Pagoda  of  China,  the  mosque 
of  Islam  or  the  cathedral  of  Christianity ;  they  all  give 
testimony  to  the  same  worshipping  instinct. 

It  will  be  objected,  perhaps,  that  this  religious  wave 
is  but  a  mere  product  of  superstition,  arising  from  ig- 
norance of  the  laws  of  nature,  and  fear  engendered  by 
them. 

If  it  be  a  superstition,  it  is  one  shared  by  the  most 
enlightened   philosophers    and   men    of    science.     A 


110      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

Bacon,  a  Leibnitz,  a  Pascal,  a  Locke,  each  has  been  its 
champion.  A  Herschel,  a  Newton,  a  Liebig,  an 
Agassiz,  a  Faraday,  each  has  owned  its  sway.  It  is 
the  testimony  of  Professor  Maudsley,  a  man  by  no 
means  prejudiced  in  favor  of  religion,  that  "  there  is 
hardly  one,  if,  indeed,  there  be  even  one,  eminent  in- 
quirer who  has  denied  the  existence  of  God,  while 
there  is  notably  more  than  one  who  has  evinced  a 
childHke  simplicity  of  faith." 

There  are,  of  course,  some  individuals  and  probably 
in  the  lowest  ranks  of  humanity  there  may  be  one  or 
two  whole  tribes  (although  the  latest  investigations 
tend  to  disprove  this),  without  any  trace  of  the  relig- 
ious sentiment.  So  there  are  men  who  are  color 
blind.  So  there  are  tribes  who  cannot  count  above 
ten,  or  discern  the  simplest  musical  discords  or  con- 
cords. But  this  does  not  prove  the  non-existence  of 
color,  harmonies  of  sound,  or  distinctions  of  number. 
It  shows  only  in  these  men  the  undeveloped  state  of 
their  natures  and  faculties.  Neither  do  the  few  excep- 
tions to  the  grand  hymn  of  praise  and  prayer,  lifted 
by  man  to  God,  disprove  at  all  the  native  adaptation 
of  man  to  religion,  and  his  need  of  it.  The  worst  un- 
believers have  yet  had  their  beliefs.  Accepted  forms 
of  theologic  statements  have  been  rudely  uprooted  by 
them,  but  the  irrepressible  religious  sense  has  blos- 
somed in  each  with  some  new  faith  of  the  man's  own. 

The  Jew  who  was  excommunicated  in  Holland  as 
the  most  negative  of  infidels  was  but  so  "  intoxicated 
with  God,"  as  wiser  minds  afterwards  saw,  that  he  could 
walk  in  no  narrow  ecclesiastical  path  and  see  the  Di- 
vine under  no  one  nor  threefold  form.     The  represent- 


VALIDITY  OF  OUR  RELIGIOUS  INSTINCTS         111 

ative  scoffer  of  the  eighteenth  century,  leader  and 
mouthpiece  of  the  disbeUef  of  the  French  Revolution, 
built  at  his  home  in  Ferney  a  chapel  with  the  inscrip- 
tion ;  "  Deo  erexit  Voltaire."  The  anathematized 
Tom  Paine  begins  that  "  Age  of  Reason  "  which  has 
been  called  a  very  Gospel  of  Unbelief,  with  this  out- 
spoken creed  :  "  I  believe  in  one  God  and  no  more 
and  I  look  for  happiness  beyond  this  life." 

Auguste  Comte  reasoned  out  a  grand  scheme  which 
he  called  The  Positive  Philosophy,  recognizing  only 
phenomena,  their  coexistence  and  succession,  and 
ruling  out  of  court  the  very  existence  of  God  or  the 
soul  as  the  idle  fancies  of  the  world's  childhood.  But 
when  he  had  finished  it, — lo !  one  day  he  met  a 
woman  who  awoke  the  heart  slumbering  within  him. 
His  beloved  Clotilde  revealed  to  him  a  law  higher 
than  self-interest,  the  law  of  love  and  worship  ;  and  he 
had  to  graft  on  to  his  system  such  sort  of  religion  as 
was  still  possible  after  the  immortal  and  the  infinite 
had  been  ruled  out.  A  makeshift  Deity  was  impro- 
vised out  of  "  Collective  Humanity,"  and  two  hours  a 
day,  divided  into  three  private  services  were  to  be 
spent  in  the  adoration  of  this  "  Grand  Being,"  under 
the  form  of  a  mother  with  her  child  in  her  arms. 
The  image  of  the  fair  idol,  dress,  posture,  everything, 
was  to  be  brought  distinctly  to  mind,  and  the  whole 
soul  was  to  be  prostrated  in  her  honor. 

With  such  chaff  will  the  spirit  of  man  seek  to  sat- 
isfy its  spiritual  hunger  when  legitimate  food  is 
denied  it ! 

Suppose  that  we  knew  two  young  men,  starting  out 
on  the  career  of  life,  in  the  flush  of  youthful  energy. 


112      TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

One  of  them  has  a  dear,  strong  faith  in  the  immortal 
soul  within  him  and  the  all  wise  and  all  holy  God 
above,  and  has  determined  to  live  as  these  beliefs  dic- 
tate to  him  that  he  should  live.  The  other  is  destitute 
entirely  of  religious  faith  and  has  made  up  his  mind, 
also,  to  act  in  accordance  with  his  Atheistic  opinions. 

Of  which  would  any  one  have  the  brightest  expecta- 
tions ?  Which  life,  by  its  usefulness,  its  contented- 
ness,  its  integrity  and  nobility  would  show  itself  in 
conformity  with  the  laws  and  forces  of  nature? 

In  such  a  situation,  is  there  any  uncertainty  as  to 
the  verdict  ? 

Suppose  a  statesman,  founding  a  new  state,  should 
take  as  its  foundation  stones,  principles  like  these : 
"  No  behef  in  God  or  a  future  state  is  to  be  tolerated 
under  this  government ;  no  worship  of  any  superhu- 
man being  is  to  be  allowed  ;  all  efforts  at  spiritual  per- 
fection, or  the  gratification  of  the  religious  sentiments, 
are  to  be  as  far  as  possible  suppressed ;  men  must 
remember  that  they  are  but  more-developed  brutes, 
and  each  must  look  out  for  his  own  gratification  and 
the  furtherance  of  his  self-interest."  Who  would  be 
wild  enough  to  expect  to  make  a  nation  hve  and  pros- 
per on  such  a  basis  ?  As  Robespierre  told  the  French 
Jacobins  with  reference  to  this  very  point :  "  If  there 
were  no  God  in  existence,  it  would  be  necessary  to  the 
national  well-being  to  invent  one." 

Or  take  but  a  few  of  the  common  test  experiences 
of  life.  When  the  sobbing  wife  looks  upon  the  grave 
of  the  beloved  partner  of  her  life ;  when  the  young 
man  is  sore  beset  by  the  seductions  of  unlawful  pas- 
sion ;  when  the  martyr  to  truth  sees  the  blazing  pyre 


VALIDITY  OF  OUR  RELIGIOUS  INSTINCTS         113 

staring  him  in  the  face,  unless  he  will  forswear  his 
honest  convictions — which  is  it  that  in  such  crises  best 
meets  the  needs  of  the  heart  ?  Which  is  it  that  re- 
sponds to  any  man's  sense  of  fitness  or  justice  ?  To 
know  that  this  world  is  the  kingdom  of  an  Almighty 
God,  whose  attributes  are  those  of  wisdom,  love,  and 
hoUness,  a  God  who  will  conquer  finally  all  evil,  help 
the  struggling,  and  reward  the  upright,  if  not  here, 
then  in  a  more  blessed  hereafter;  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  beHeve  that  "  the  universe  is  simply  an  end- 
less coil  of  antecedents  and  consequents,  unwinding 
from  the  drum  of  time  by  unchangeable  law ;  a  mon- 
strous engine  of  matter  and  force,  grinding  on  re- 
morselessly, caring  not  whom  it  kills,  utterly  unguided, 
unheeding,  unknowing  "  ?  Can  any  one  doubt  which 
of  these  answers  alone  corresponds  to  the  native  in- 
stincts of  man  ?  Can  any  reasonable  mind  be  uncer- 
tain as  to  which  answer  is  adjusted  to  the  characteristic 
features  of  humanity,  which  have  been  impressed  on 
the  heart  of  man  by  the  grand  seal  of  nature  ? 

Some  half  century  ago  a  German  writer  published 
a  piece  of  verse  which  began  in  this  way :  "  Our 
hearts  are  oppressed  with  the  emotions  of  a  pious 
sadness  at  the  thought  of  the  ancient  Jehovah  who  is 
preparing  to  die." 

The  verses  were  a  dirge  upon  the  death  of  the  liv- 
ing God,  who  was  soon,  as  the  author  believed,  to 
perish  from  the  belief  of  reason ;  and  the  author,  like 
a  well-educated  son  of  the  nineteenth  century,  be- 
stowed a  few  poetic  tears  upon  the  obsequies  of  the 
eternal. 

There  are  men  at  the  present  day  to  whom  likewise 


114      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

there  is  no  longer  any  God,  and  who  do  not  even 
affect  the  politeness  of  making  any  lament,  but  openly 
exult  over  their  discovery. 

But  ah !  if  that  should  indeed  be  true !  What  a 
funeral  pall  would  it  throw  over  human  Hfe !  How 
would  it  strip  existence  of  its  highest  aspirations  and 
sweetest  consolations ! 

Science  and  culture  I  know,  have  given  us  wonder- 
ful gifts  and  have  made  marvelous  discoveries. 

But  what  thoughtful  man  will  dare  to  say  that  they 
have  so  taken  the  place  of  faith  in  providing  for  man 
that  religion  is  of  no  more  use,  in  these  modern  days  ? 

What  thoughtful  man  will  say  that  either  modern 
culture  or  modern  science  can  fill  the  hearts  of  its 
votaries  with  more  sincere  joyfulness  than  the  hearts 
of  David  or  Paul  or  the  humblest  true  Christians  have 
held? 

What  thoughtful  man  will  dare  to  say  that  any  or 
all  of  our  modern  inventions,  our  patent  appliances 
and  boasted  sources  of  enlightenment  can  do  more  to 
make  a  household  contented,  or  can  turn  out  better, 
sweeter,  higher-minded  men  and  women  than  religion 
with  its  old-fashioned  beliefs  and  principles  ? 

And  if  science  and  culture  cannot  do  this, — most 
certainly  they  can  never  take  the  place  of  religion. 

Remove  science  and  all  its  admirable  discoveries 
from  our  modern  world,  and  humanity  would  indeed 
be  thrust  far  backward  on  the  path  of  progress,  in 
straits  of  daily  inconvenience,  thoroughly  uncomforta- 
ble even  to  imagine. 

But  expel  religion  from  the  world  and  humanity 
would  miss  something  still  more  indispensable.     Hu- 


VALIDITY  OF  OUB  RELIGIOUS  INSTINCTS         115 

manity  would  suffer  the  most  irreparable  of  all  losses. 
It  would  lose  the  ideals  which  led  it  on,  the  strength 
in  which  it  faced  difficulties  and  obloquies ;  the  hopes 
that  have  consoled  it  in  every  trial  and  bereavement. 

There  are  moments  certainly  in  every  one's  life  when 
those,  fullest  stocked  with  learning,  feel  themselves  as 
benighted  as  the  most  illiterate ;  when  they  look  in 
vain  to  all  their  science  and  culture  to  furnish  a  gleam 
of  light  or  hope  to  illuminate  the  gloom. 

Hear  the  confession  of  a  German  satirist  (who  had 
thrown  as  many  bitter  mockeries  at  religion  as  any 
man  of  his  generation)  in  regard  to  his  personal  ex- 
periences as  he  stood  at  the  bedside  of  his  dying 
mother. 

"  I  thought  over,"  said  Heinrich  Heine,  "  all  the 
great  and  the  little  inventions  of  man, — the  Doctrine 
of  Souls,  Newton's  System  of  Attraction,  The  Uni- 
versal German  Library,  the  Genera  Plantarum,  the 
Calculus  Infinitorum,  the  Magister  Matheseos,  the 
Right  and  the  Oblique  Ascension  of  the  Stars  and 
their  Parallaxes ;  but  nothing  would  answer.  And 
she  lay  out  of  reach,  lay  on  the  brink  and  was  going, 
and  I  could  not  even  see  where  she  would  fall.  Then 
I  commended  her  to  God,  and  went  out  and  composed 
a  prayer  for  the  dying,  that  she  might  read  it.  She 
was  my  mother ;  and  she  had  always  loved  me  so 
dearly ;  and  this  was  all  that  I  could  do  for  her." 

"  We  are  not  great ;  and  our  happiness  is  that  we  can 
believe  in  something  greater  and  better." 

Such  is  the  indispensable  need  of  God  felt  by  the 
human  heart,  even  by  such  inveterate  jesters  as  a 
Heine. 


116      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  TEE  NEW  THOUGHT  " 

Such  are  the  religious  instincts  of  man,  not  to  be 
denied  without  working  deepest  misery  and  mischief. 
Now,  whichever  of  the  two  opposite  theories  of  the 
formation  of  these    natural   needs    and   instincts    we 
adopt;  whether   we   say,  as  the    theist  has  formerly 
done,   that    they   are    formed   by    God    Himself,   or 
whether  we  take  the  position  of  the  evolutionists,  that 
they  are  formed  by  the  persistent  moulding  power  of 
nature  over  the  individual,  by  the  reiterated  impres- 
sions upon  successive  generations  of  the  surrounding 
universe  (continuous   correspondence  with  which    is 
the  very  condition  and  essence  both  of  life  and  mind) 
— on  either  theory  it  is  impossible   to  believe  that 
these  God-desiring  impulses  are  contradictions  of  the 
reality  of  nature.     Can  it  be  thought  for  a  moment, 
that  these  inborn  affirmations  of  the  soul  within  man, 
and   of    the   over-soul   without    him,  are   organized 
delusions   on  the  part  of  nature,  are  falsehoods  per- 
sistently renewed  by  the  universe  in  the  formation  of 
every  fresh  organism  ?     To  believe  that  were  suicidal 
to  all  reasoning,  to  every  system  of  thought.     But  if 
that  be  incredible,  if  that  cannot  be  accepted,  there  is 
no  alternative  except  to  recognize  in  this  universal 
outcry  of  heart  and  flesh  for  the  living  God,  in  this  in- 
stinctive faith   in  spiritual  things,  ever  springing  up 
afresh,  however  much  it  may  be  trampled  upon,  a  sure 
attestation    of  the    infinite   and  eternal  realities  cor- 
respondent to  them. 


CHAPTER  V. 

EVOLUTION   AND    CHRISTIANITY. 

In  the  life  and  letters  of  Charles  Darwin  there  is  a 
memorandum  copied  from  his  pocket  note-book  of 
1837,  to  this  effect.  "  In  July,  opened  my  first  note- 
book on  Transmutation  of  Species.  Had  been  greatly 
struck  with  the  character  of  the  South  American 
fossils  and  the  species  on  Galapagos  Archipelago." 

These  facts,  he  says,  were  the  origin  of  all  his  epoch- 
making  views  as  to  the  development  of  life  and  the 
work  of  natural  selection  in  evolving  species. 

His  first  suspicions  that  species  were  not  immutable 
and  made  at  one  cast,  directly  by  the  fiat  of  the 
Creator,  seemed  to  him,  at  the  outset,  he  says, 
"  almost  like  murder^ 

To  the  greater  part  of  the  church,  when  in  1859 
after  twenty  years  of  work,  in  accumulating  the  proofs 
of  his  theory,  he  at  last  gave  it  to  the  world,  it  seemed 
quite  as  bad  as  murder. 

It  is  very  interesting  now,  to  look  back  upon  the 
history  and  career  of  the  Darwinian  theory  in  the  last 
forty  years ;  to  recall,  first,  the  fierce  outcry  and  de- 
nunciation it  elicited ;  then,  the  gradual  accumulation 
of  corroboratory  evidence  from  all  quarters  in  its 
favor ;  the  accession  of  one  scientific  authority  after 
another  to  the  new  views  ;  the  softening  little  by 
little,  of  ecclesiastical  opposition ;  its  gradual  accept 

117 


118      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

ance  by  the  broad-minded,  alike  in  theological  and 
scientific  circles;  then  in  these  recent  years,  the  ex- 
altation of  the  new  theory  into  a  scientific  and  phil- 
osophic creed,  wherein  matter,  force  and  evolution 
constitute  the  New  Trinity,  which  unless  the  modern 
man  piously  believes,  he  becomes  anathematized  and 
excommunicated  by  all  the  priests  of  the  new  dog- 
matism. 

In  the  field  of  science,  undoubtedly,  evolution  has 
won  the  day.  Nevertheless,  in  religious  circles,  old 
time  prejudices  and  slow  conservatism,  clinging  to  its 
creeds,  as  the  hermit  crab  clings  to  the  cast  off  shell 
of  oyster  or  clam,  still  resist  it.  The  great  body  of 
the  Christian  laity,  looks  askance  on  it.  And  even  in 
this  progressive  American  country,  one  of  the  largest 
and  most  liberal  of  American  denominations  not  long 
ago  tried  and  condemned  one  of  its  clergy  for  heresy, 
on  account  of  the  publication  of  a  book,  in  which  the 
principles  of  evolution  are  frankly  adopted  and  applied 
to  Christianity.  For  a  man  to  call  himself  a  Christian 
evolutionist,  is,  (we  have  been  told  by  high  orthodox 
authority)  a  contradiction  in  terms. 

I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  to-day,  that  evolution  has 
come  to  stay.  It  is  too  late  to  turn  it  out  of  the  man- 
sions of  modern  thought.  And  it  is  therefore  a  vital 
question,  "  can  belief  in  God  and  the  soul  and  divine 
revelation  abide  under  the  same  roof  in  peace  ?  Or 
must  Christianity  vacate  the  realm  of  modern  thought 
and  leave  it  to  the  chilUng  frosts  of  materialism  and 
skepticism  ? 

Now,  if  I  have  been  able  to  understand  the  issue 
and  its  grounds,  there  is  no  such  alternative, — no  such 


EVOLUTION  AND   CHRISTIANITY  119 

incompatibility   between   evolution   and  Christianity. 
There  is,  I  know,  a  form  of  evolution  and  a  form  of 
Christianity  which  are  mutually  contradictory.     There 
is  a  form  of  evolution  which  is  narrowly  materialistic. 
It  dogmatically  asserts  that  there  is  nothing  in  exist- 
ence but  matter  and  physical  forces  and  the  iron  laws 
according  to  which  they  develop.     Life,  according  to 
this  school,  is  only  a  product  of  the  happy  combi- 
nation of  the  atoms  ;  feeling  and  thought  are  but  the 
iridescence    of   the   brain-tissues  ;    conscience  but  a 
transmuted  form  of  ancestral  fears  and  expediencies. 
Soul,  revelation,  providence  are  nothing  but  illusions 
of  the  childish  fancy  of  humanity.     Opposed  to  this 
materialism  and  fighting  with  all  the  intensity  of  those 
who  fight  for  their  very  life,  stands  a  school  of  Chris- 
tians who  maintain  that  unless  the  special  creation  of 
species,  by  Divine  fiat,  and  the  frequent  intervention 
of  God  and  His  angels  in  the  world  be  admitted,  re- 
ligion has  received  its  death  wound.     According  to 
this  school,  unless  the  world  was  created  in  six  days, 
and  Joshua  commanded  the  sun  to  stand  still,  and 
Hezekiah  turned  the  solar  shadow  back  on  the  dial, 
and  Jesus  was  born  without  human  father,  and  unless 
some  new  miracle  will  interfere  with  the  regular  course 
of  law,  of  rain  and  dew,  of  sickness  and  health,  of 
cause  and  effect,  whenever  a  believer  lifts  up  his  voice 
in  prayer, — why  then,  the  very  foundations  of  religion 
are  destroyed. 

Now,  of  course,  between  a  Christianity  and  an  evo- 
lutionism of  this  sort,  there  is  an  irreconcilable  con- 
flict. But  it  is  because  neither  of  them  is  a  fair, 
rational  or  true  form  of  thought.     When  the  principle 


120      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

of  evolution  is  properly  comprehended  and  ex- 
pounded ;  when  Christianity  is  interpreted  in  the  light 
that  history  and  philosophy  require,  the  two  will  be 
found  to  have  no  difficulty  in  joining  hands.  Though 
a  purely  naturalistic  evolutionism  may  ignore  God; 
and  a  purely  supernatural  religion  may  have  no  room 
for  evolution,  a  natural  religion  and  a  rational  evolu- 
tion may  yet  harmoniously  unite  in  a  higher  and  more 
fruitful  marriage.  Let  us  only  recognize  evolution  by 
the  Divine  Spirit,  as  the  process  of  God's  working  in 
the  world,  and  we  then  have  a  theory  which  has  a 
place  and  a  function,  at  once  for  all  that  the  newest 
science  has  to  teach  and  the  most  venerable  faith 
needs  to  retain. 

In  the  first  place,  evolution  is  not  itself  a  cause ;  it 
is  no  force  in  itself.  It  has  no  originating  power.  It 
is  simply  a  method  and  law  of  the  occurrence  of 
things.  Evolution  shows  that  all  things  proceed, 
little  by  little,  without  breach  of  continuity ;  that  the 
higher  ever  proceeds  from  the  lower ;  the  more  com- 
plex ever  unfolds  from  the  more  simple.  For  every 
species  or  form,  it  points  out  some  ancestor  or  natural 
antecedent,  from  which  by  gradual  modification,  it  has 
been  derived.  And  in  natural  selection,  in  the  influ- 
ences of  the  environment,  in  sexual  selection,  use  and 
disuse,  sterility,  and  the  variability  of  the  organism, 
science  shows  us  some  of  the  secondary  factors  or 
conditions  of  this  development.  But  none  of  these  are 
supposed  by  it  to  be  first  causes  or  originating  powers. 
What  these  are,  science  itself  does  not  claim  to  declare. 

Now,  it  is  true,  that  this  unbroken  course  of  de- 
velopment, and  this  omnipresent  reign  of  law  are  in- 


EVOLUTION  AND  CHRISTIANITY  121 

consistent  with  the  theological  theories  of  supernatural 
interventions  that  have  so  often  claimed  a  monopoly 
of  faith.  But  independent  of  all  scientific  reasons, — 
on  religious  and  philosophical  grounds  themselves, 
this  dogmatic  view  is  no  longer  to  be  accepted.  For 
if  God  be  the  God  of  all-seeing  wisdom  and  foresight 
that  reverence  conceives  Him  to  be,  His  work  should 
be  too  perfect  from  the  outset  to  demand  such  changes 
of  plan  and  order  of  working.  The  great  miracle  of 
miracles,  as  Isaac  Taylor  used  to  say — is  that  "  Provi- 
dence needs  no  miracles  to  carry  out  its  all  perfect 
plans." 

But  if,  I  hear  it  asked, — if  the  huge  machine  of  the 
universe  thus  grinds  on  and  has  ever  ground  on, 
without  interruption ;  if  every  event  is  closely  bound 
to  its  physical  antecedent ;  Hfe  to  cell ;  mind  to  brain, 
man  to  his  animal  ancestry  and  bodily  conditions, — 
what  other  result  will  there  be  than  an  inevitable  sur- 
render of  materialism  ?  When  Laplace  was  asked  by 
Napoleon,  on  presenting  to  him  his  famous  essay  on 
the  nebular  hypothesis  of  the  origin  of  the  stellar 
universe — "  Why  do  I  see  here  no  mention  of  the 
Deity," — the  French  astronomer  proudly  replied — 
"  Sire,  I  have  no  need  of  that  hypothesis."  Is  not 
that  the  natural  lesson  of  evolutionism, — to  say  that 
God  is  an  hypothesis,  no  longer  needed  by  science, 
and  which  progressive  thought,  therefore,  better  dis- 
miss ?  I  do  not  think  so.  Old  time  materialism  dis- 
missed the  idea  of  God  because  it  dismissed  the  idea 
of  a  beginning.  The  forces  and  phenomena  of  the 
world  were  supposed  eternal  and  therefore  a  Creator 
was  unnecessary.     But  the  conception  of  evolution  is 


122      THE  NEW  WOBLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

radically  different.  It  is  a  movement,  that  demands  a 
motor  force  behind  it.  It  is  a  movement  moreover, 
that  according  to  the  testimony  of  modern  science, 
cannot  have  been  eternal.  The  modern  theory  of 
heat  and  the  dissipation  of  energy  requires  that  our 
solar  system  and  the  nebula  from  which  it  sprang 
should  have  had  a  beginning  in  some  finite  period  of 
time.  The  evolutionary  process  cannot  have  been 
going  on  forever;  for  the  amount  of  heat  and  the 
number  of  degrees  of  temperature  and  the  rate  of 
cooling,  are  all  finite,  calculable  quantities,  and  there- 
fore the  process  cannot  have  been  going  on  for  more 
than  a  certain  finite  number  of  years, — more  or  less 
millions,  say.  Moreover,  if  the  original  fire-mist  was 
perfectly  homogeneous,  and  not  impelled  into  motion 
by  any  external  force,  it  would  never  have  begun  to 
rotate  and  evolve  into  planets  and  worlds.  If  per- 
fectly homogeneous,  it  would  have  remained  always 
balanced  and  always  immobile.  To  start  it  on  its 
course  of  rotation  and  evolution,  there  must  have  been 
either  some  external  impelling  power,  or  else  some 
original  differentiation  of  forces,  for  which  again  some 
cause,  other  than  itself  must  be  supposed.  For  the 
well-known  law  of  inertia  forbids  that  any  material 
system  that  is  in  absolute  equilibrium  should  spon- 
taneously start  itself  into  motion.  As  John  Stuart 
Mill  admitted — "  the  laws  of  nature  can  give  no 
account  of  their  own  origin." 

In  the  second  place,  notice  that  the  materialistic 
interpretation  of  evolution  fails  to  account  for  that 
which  is  most  characteristic  in  the  process ;  the  steady 
progress  it  reveals. 


EVOLUTION  AND  CHRISTIANITY  123 

Were  evolution  an  aimless,  fruitless  motion,  rising 
and  falling  alternately,  or  moving  round  and  round  in 
an  endless  circle,  the  reference  of  these  motions  to  the 
blind  forces  of  matter,  might  have  perhaps  a  certain 
plausibility.  But  the  movements  of  the  evolution 
process  are  of  quite  a  different  character;  they  are 
not  chaotic ;  they  are  no  barren,  useless  circlings  back 
to  the  same  point,  again  and  again.  They  are  progress- 
ive ;  and  if  often  they  seem  to  return  to  their  point 
of  departure,  we  see,  on  close  examination,  that  the 
return  is  always  on  a  higher  plane.  The  motion  is  a 
spiral  one,  ever  advancing  to  loftier  and  loftier  ranges. 

Now  this  progressive  motion  is  something  that  no 
accidental  play  of  the  atoms  will  account  for.  For 
chance  builds  no  such  rational  structures ;  chance 
writes  no  such  intelligent  dramas,  with  orderly  be- 
ginning, crescendo  and  climax.  Or  if  some  day, 
chance  builds  a  structure  with  some  show  of  order  in 
it,  to-morrow  it  pulls  it  down.  It  does  not  move 
steadily  forward  with  permanent  constructions. 

The  further  science  penetrates  into  the  secrets  of 
the  universe  the  more  regular  seems  the  march  of 
thought  presented  there;  the  more  harmonious  the 
various  parts ;  the  more  rational  the  grand  system 
that  is  discovered.  "  How  the  one  force  of  the  uni- 
verse should  have  pursued  the  pathway  of  evolution 
through  the  lapse  of  millions  of  ages,  leaving  traces 
so  legible  by  intelligence  to-day,  unless  from  begin- 
ning to  end  the  whole  process  had  been  dominated  by 
intelligence,"  has  well  been  said  to  pass  the  limits  of 
conjecture.  The  all  luminous  intelligibility  of  the 
universe  is  the  all  sufficient  proof  of  the  intelligence 


124      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

of  the  cause  that  produced  it.  In  the  annals  of  sci- 
ence there  is  nothing  more  curious  than  the  prophetic 
power  which  those  savans  have  gained  who  have 
grasped  this  secret  of  nature — the  rationahty  of  the 
universe.  It  was  by  this  confidence  in  finding  in  the 
hitherto  unexplained  domains  of  nature  what  reason 
demanded,  that  Goethe,  from  the  analogies  of  the 
mammalian  skeleton  discovered  the  intermaxillary 
bone  in  man;  and  Sir  William  Hamilton  from  the 
mathematical  consequences  of  the  undulation  of  light 
led  the  way  to  the  discovery  of  conical  refraction. 

A  similar  story  is  told  of  Professor  Agassiz  and 
Professor  Pierce,  the  one,  the  great  zoologist,  the 
other  the  great  mathematician  of  Harvard  University. 
Agassiz,  having  studied  the  formation  of  radiate  ani- 
mals and  having  found  them  all  referable  to  three 
different  plans  of  structure,  asked  Professor  Pierce, 
without  informing  him  of  his  discovery,  how  to  exe- 
cute all  the  variations  possible,  conformed  to  the 
fundamental  idea  of  a  radiated  structure  around  a 
central  axis.  Professor  Pierce,  although  quite  ignorant 
of  natural  history,  at  once  devised  the  very  three 
plans,  discovered  by  Agassiz,  as  the  only  fundamental 
plans  which  could  be  framed  in  accordance  with  the 
given  elements. 

How  significantly  do  such  correspondences  speak 
of  the  working  of  mind  in  nature,  moulding  it  in  con- 
formity with  ideas  of  reason.  Thus  to  see  the  laws 
of  thought  exhibiting  themselves  as  also  the  laws  of 
being  seems  to  me  a  fact  sufficient  of  itself  to  prove 
the  presence  of  an  overruling  mind  in  nature. 

Is  there  any  way  of  escaping  this  obvious  conclu- 


^EVOLUTION  AND  CHRISTIANITY  125 

sion  ?  The  only  method  that  has  been  suggested  has 
been  to  refer  these  harmonies  of  nature  back  to  the 
original  regularity  of  the  atoms. 

As  the  drops  of  frozen  moisture  on  the  window 
pane  build  up  the  symmetrical  frost-forms,  without 
design  or  reason,  by  virtue  of  the  original  similarity 
of  the  component  parts,  so  do  the  similar  atoms, 
without  any  more  reason  or  plan,  build  up  the  har- 
monious forms  of  nature. 

But  this  answer  brings  us  face  to  face  with  a 
third  significant  problem,  a  still  greater  obstacle  to 
materialism.  Why  are  the  atoms  of  nature  thus  regu- 
lar— thus  exactly  similar,  one  to  another  ?  Here  are 
millions  on  millions  of  atoms  of  gold,  each  just  alike. 
Millions  and  millions  of  atoms  of  oxygen,  each  with 
the  same  velocity  of  movement,  the  same  weight,  size 
and  chemical  properties.  All  the  millions  on  millions 
of  atoms  on  the  globe  are  not  of  infinitely  varied 
shape,  weight,  size,  quality ;  but  there  are  only  some 
seventy  different  kinds ;  and  all  the  millions  of  one 
kind  are  substantially  alike,  so  that  each  new  atom  of 
oxygen  that  comes  to  a  burning  flame  does  the  same 
work  and  acts  in  precisely  the  same  way  as  its  fellows. 

Did  you  ever  think  of  that  ?  If  you  have  ever 
realized  what  it  means,  you  must  recognize  this  uni- 
formity of  the  atoms,  billions  and  billions  of  them  as 
like  one  another  as  if  run  out  of  the  same  mould,  as 
the  most  astonishing  thing  in  nature. 

Now,  among  the  atoms,  there  can  have  been  no 
birth,  no  death,  no  struggle  for  existence,  no  natural 
selection  to  account  for  this.  What  other  explanation, 
then,  in  reason  is   there,  than  to  say  as  those  great 


126      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

men  of  science,  Sir  John  Herschel  and  Clerk  Max- 
well (who  have  in  our  day,  most  deeply  pondered  this 
curious  fact)  have  said, — that  this  division  of  all  the 
infinite  host  of  atoms  in  nature  into  a  very  limited 
number  of  groups,  all  the  billions  of  numbers  in  each 
group  precisely  alike  in  their  mechanical  and  chemical 
properties,  gives  to  each  of  the  atoms  "  the  essential 
characters,  at  once  of  a  manufactured  article  and  a 
subordinate  agent." 

Evolution  cannot  then  be  justly  charged  with  ma- 
terialism. On  the  contrary,  it  especially  demands  a 
divine  creative  force  as  the  starter  of  its  processes 
and  the  endower  of  the  atoms  with  their  peculiar 
properties.  The  foundation  of  that  scientific  system 
which  the  greatest  of  modern  expositors  of  evolu- 
tion has  built  up  about  the  principle  of  development  (I 
mean,  of  course,  Herbert  Spencer's  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy), is  the  persistence  of  an  infinite,  eternal  and 
indestructible  force,  of  which  all  things  that  we  see 
are  the  manifestations. 

The  evolution  theory  is  indedd  hostile  to  that  phase 
of  theology  which  conceived  of  God  as  a  being  out- 
side of  nature.  To  suppose,  as  many  of  the  camp- 
followers  of  the  evolution  philosophy  do,  that  the 
processes  of  successive  change  and  gradual  modifica- 
tion which  have  been  so  clearly  traced  out  in  nature, 
relieve  us  from  the  need  or  right  of  asking  for  any 
anterior  and  higher  cause  of  these  processes ;  or  that 
because  the  higher  and  finer  always  unfolds  from  the 
lower  and  coarser,  therefore  there  was  really  nothing 
else  in  existence  at  the  beginning  than  these  crude 
elements   which    alone  we    see    at    first :    and   that 


EVOLUTION  AND  CHRISTIANITY  127 

these  gross,  sensuous  facts  are  the  only  source  and 
explanation  of  all  that  has  followed  them, — this  is 
a  most  superficial  and  inadequate  view.  For  this  ex- 
planation, as  we  have  already  noticed,  furnishes  no 
fountain  head  of  power  to  maintain  the  constant  up- 
ward-mounting of  the  waters  in  the  world's  conduits. 
It  furnishes  no  intelligent  directions  of  these  streams 
into  ever  wise  and  ordered  channels.  To  explain  the 
higher  hfe  that  comes  out  of  these  low  beginnings,  we 
must  suppose  the  existence  of  spiritual  powers,  unseen 
at  first,  and  disclosing  themselves  only  in  the  fuller, 
later  results,  the  moral  and  spiritual  phenomena  that 
are  the  crowning  flower  and  fruit  of  the  long  process. 
When  a  thing  has  grown  from  a  lower  to  a  higher 
form,  its  real  rank  and  nature  is  not  shown  by  what  it 
began  in,  but  by  what  it  has  become.  Though  chem- 
istry has  grown  out  of  alchemy  and  astronomy  out 
of  astrology,  this  does  not  empty  them  of  present 
truth  or  impair  at  all  their  authority  and  trustworthi- 
ness to-day.  Though  man's  minds  have  grown  out 
of  the  sensations  of  brutish  ancestors,  that  does  not 
take  away  the  fact  that  he  has  now  risen  to  a  height 
from  which  he  overlooks  all  their  mists  and  sees  the 
light  which  never  was  on  sea  or  land.  The  real  be- 
ginning of  a  statue  is  not  in  the  rough  outline  in 
which  it  first  appears,  but  in  the  creative  idea  of  the 
perfect  work  which  regulates  its  whole  progress. 

So  to  discern  the  real  character  and  motor  power 
of  the  world's  evolution,  we  must  look,  not  to  the 
beginnings,  but  to  its  end ;  and  see  in  the  latest  stages 
and  its  highest  moral  and  spiritual  forms  and  forces, — ■ 
not  disguises  of  the  earlier  stages,  but  ampler  mani- 


128      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

festations  of  that  divine  power  and  purpose  which  is 
the  ever-active  agent,  working  through  all  the  varied 
levels  of  creation. 

The  evolution  theory  is,  indeed,  it  must  be  acknowl- 
edged, hostile  to  that  phase  of  theology  which  con- 
ceives of  God  as  a  being  outside  of  nature;  which 
regarded  the  universe  as  a  dead  lump,  a.  mechanical 
fabric  where  the  Creator  once  worked,  at  the  im- 
mensely remote  dawn  of  creation ;  and  to  which  again 
for  a  few  short  moments,  this  transcendental  Power 
stooped  from  His  celestial  throne,  when  the  successive 
species  of  living  beings  were  called  into  being,  in 
brief  exertions  of  supernatural  energy.  But  this 
mechanical  view  of  God  who,  as  Goethe  said, 
"only  from  without  should  drive  and  twirl  the  uni- 
verse about,"  what  a  poor  conception  of  God,  after  all, 
was  that; — not  undeserving  the  ridicule  of  the  great 
German. 

Certainly,  the  idea  of  God  which  Wordsworth  has 
given  us,  as  a  power,  not  indefinitely  remote,  but  ever 
present  and  infinitely  near, —  * 

"  A  motion  and  a  spirit  which  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thoughts 
And  rolls  through  all  things." 

is  a  much  more  inspiring  and  venerable  thought.  This 
is  the  conception  of  God  that  Paul  has  given  us ; "  the  God 
in  whom  we  Hve  and  move  and  have  our  being  "  ;  this 
is  the  conception  that  the  Book  of  Wisdom  gives  us, — 
"  the  Divine  Spirit  who  fiUeth  the  world."  And  to 
this  conception  of  God,  evolution  has  no  antagonism ; 
but  on  the  contrary,  throws  its  immense  weight  in  its 
favor. 


EVOLUTION  AND   CHRISTIANITY  129 

Evolution  in  fact,  instead  of  removing  the  Deity 
from  us,  brings  Him  close  about  us ;  sets  us  face  to 
face  with  His  daily  activities.  The  universe  is  but  the 
body  of  which  God  is  the  soul ;  "  the  interior  Artist,"  as 
Giordano  Bruno  used  to  say,  who  from  within,  moulds 
His  living  shapes  of  beauty  and  power.  What  else  in 
fact  is  evolution  but  the  secular  name  for  the  Divine 
Indwelling;  the  scientific  alias  for  the  growth  and 
progressive  revelation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  daily  putting 
off  the  old  and  putting  on  the  new;  constantly  busy 
from  the  beginning  of  time  to  this  very  day;  inces- 
santly moulding  and  forwarding  His  work. 

Not  long  ago  I  came  across  the  mental  experience 
of  a  working  geologist  which  well  illustrates  this. 
"  Once  in  early  boyhood,"  he  says,  "  I  left  a  lumber- 
man's camp  at  night,  to  go  to  the  brook  for  water.  It 
was  a  clear,  cold,  moonlight  night,  and  very  still,  ex- 
cept the  distant  murmuring  of  the  Penobscot  at  some 
falls.  A  sense  of  the  grandeur  of  the  forest  and 
rivers ;  the  hills  and  sky  and  stars  came  over  the  boy 
and  he  stood  and  looked  around.  An  owl  hooted  and 
the  hooting  was  not  a  cheerful  sound.  The  men  were 
all  asleep  and  the  conditions  were  lonely  enough.  But 
there  was  no  feeling  of  loneliness ;  for  with  the  sense 
of  the  grandeur  of  creation,  came  the  sense  very  real 
and  strong  of  the  Creator's  presence.  In  boyish 
imagination,  I  could  see  His  Almighty  hand,  shaping 
the  hills  and  scooping  out  the  valleys,  spreading  the 
sky  overhead  and  making  trees,  animals  and  men.'' 

"  Thirty  years  later,  I  camped  alone  in  the  open  air 
on  the  bank  of  the  Gila.  It  was  a  clear,  cold,  moon- 
light night.     The  camp-fire  was  low,  for  the  Apaches 


130      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

were  on  the  war  path.  An  owl  again  hooted.  But 
again  all  loneliness  was  dispelled  by  a  sense  of  the 
Creator's  presence,  and  the  night  of  long  ago  by  the 
Penobscot  came  into  my  mind ;  and  with  it,  came  the 
question :  What  is  the  difference  to  my  mind  between 
the  Creator's  presence,  now  and  then  ?  " 

"  To  the  heart,  it  was  very  like ;  but  to  the  mind 
very  different.  Now,  no  great  hand  was  shaping 
things  from  without.  But  God  was  everywhere 
reaching  down  through  long  lines  of  forces  and 
shaping  and  sustaining  things  from  within.  I  had 
been  traveling  all  day  by  mountains  of  lava  which  had 
cooled  long  ages  ago,  and  over  grounds,  which  the 
sea,  now  far  off,  had  left  on  its  beaches ;  and  with  the 
geologist's  habit,  recalled  the  lava  still  glowing  and 
flowing,  and  the  sea  still  rattling  its  pebbles  on  the 
beaches.  But  now,  I  knew  it  was  by  forces  within  the 
earth  that  the  lava  was  poured  out,  and  that  the  waves 
which  rolled  the  pebbles  were  driven  by  the  wind  and 
the  wind  by  the  sun's  heat.  And  the  forces  within 
the  earth  and  the  heat  within  the  sun  came  from  still 
further  within.  Inward,  always  inward,  the  search  for 
the  original  energy  and  law,  carried  my  mind ;  for  He, 
whose  will  is  the  source  of  all  force,  and  whose  thought 
is  the  source  of  all  law  is  on  the  inside  of  the  universe. 
The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you  "     (James  E.  Mills). 

Now  this  change  from  the  boyish  idea  of  God 
creating  things  from  without,  to  the  manhood's  view 
of  God,  creating  and  sustaining  all  things  from  within, 
is,  indeed  as  this  working  geologist  so  well  says,  "  the 
essential  change  which  modern  science  has  wrought 
in  the  habit  of  religious  thought." 


EVOLUTION  AND   CHRISTIANITY  131 

From  Copernicus  to  Darwin,  every  important  step 
in  the  development  of  science  has  cost  the  giving  up 
of  some  idea  of  God  creating  things,  as  man  shapes 
them,  from  without,  and  has  illustrated  the  higher  idea 
of  a  God,  reaching  His  works  from  within.  "  Every 
step  has  led  towards  the  truth  that  life  and  force  come 
to  the  forms  in  which  they  are  clothed,  from  God  by 
the  inner  way ;  and  by  the  same  way,  their  law  comes 
with  them ;  and  that  the  forms  are  the  effects  of  the 
force  and  Hfe,  acting  according  to  the  law." 

Now,  this  is  certainly  a  most  noble,  uplifting  con- 
ception of  the  world.  But  how,  perhaps  you  ask,  can 
we  find  justification  for  such  a  view  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  as  indwelling  in  nature  ? 

Now  when  we  consider  this  question,  we  find  that 
one  of  the  phases  of  the  evolution  philosophy  that  has 
been  a  chief  source  of  alarm  is  precisely  the  one  that 
lends  signal  support  to  this  doctrine  of  Divine  In- 
dwelling. 

Evolution  especially  excites  aversion,  because  it 
connects  man  so  closely  with  nature ;  our  souls  are 
traced  back  to  an  animal  origin ;  consciousness  to 
instinct,  instinct  to  sensibility  and  this  to  lower  laws 
and  properties  of  force.  By  the  law  of  the  correlation 
of  forces,  our  mental  and  spiritual  powers  are  regarded 
as  but  transformed  phases  of  physical  forces,  con- 
ditioned as  they  are  on  our  bodily  states  and  changes  ; 
and  the  soul,  it  is  said,  is  but  a  child  of  nature,  who  is 
most  literally  its  mother. 

To  many  minds  this  is  appalling.  But  let  us  look 
it  candidly  in  the  face  and  see  its  full  bearing.  We 
will  recall  in  the  first  place,  the  scientific  law :  no  life 


132      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

but  from  preceding  life.  Let  us  recollect  next  the 
dictum  of  mechanics  :  no  fountain  can  rise  higher  than 
its  source.  The  natural  corollary  and  consequence  of 
this  is — no  evolution  without  preceding  involution. 
If  mind  and  consciousness  come  out  of  nature,  they 
must  first  have  been  enveloped  in  nature;  resident 
within  its  depths.  If  the  spirit  within  our  hearts  is 
one  with  the  force  that  stirs  the  sense  and  grows  in 
the  plant ;  then  that  sea  of  energy  that  envelops  us  is 
also  spirit. 

When  we  come  to  examine  the  idea  of  force,  we 
find  that  there  is  only  one  form  in  which  we  get  any 
direct  knowledge  of  it,  only  one  place  in  which  we 
come  into  contact  with  it;  and  that  is  in  our  own 
conscious  experiences  ;  in  the  efforts  of  our  own  will. 

According  to  the  scientific  rule  always  "  to  interpret 
the  unknown  by  the  known,  not  the  known  by  the 
unknown," — it  is  only  the  rational  conclusion  that 
force  elsewhere  is  also  will.  Through  this  personal 
experience  of  energy,  we  get,  just  once,  an  inside 
view  of  the  universal  energy,  and  we  find  it  to  be 
spiritual ;  the  will-force  of  the  infinite  Spirit,  dwelling 
in  all  things.  That  the  encircling  force  of  the  uni- 
verse can  best  be  understood  through  the  analogy  of 
our  own  sense  of  effort,  and  therefore  is  a  form  of  will, 
of  spirit,  is  a  conclusion  endorsed  by  the  most  eminent 
men  of  science,  such  as  Huxley,  Herschel,  Carpenter 
and  Le  Conte. 

There  is  therefore  no  real  efficient  force  but  spirit. 
The  various  energies  of  nature  are  but  different  forms 
or  special  currents  of  this  Omnipresent  Divine  Power. 
The  laws  of  nature  are  only  the  wise  and  regular 


EVOLUTION  AND  CHRISTIANITY  133 

habits  of  this  active  Divine  will ;  physical  phenomena 
are  but  projections  of  God's  thought  on  the  screen  of 
space ;  and  evolution  is  simply  the  slow,  gradual  un- 
rolling of  the  panorama  on  the  great  stage  of  time. 

In  geology  and  paleontology,  evolution  is  not 
directly  observed,  but  only  inferred.  The  process  is 
too  slow ; — the  stage  too  grand  for  direct  observation. 
There  is  one  field  and  only  one  where  it  has  been 
directly  observed.  This  is  in  the  case  of  domestic 
animals  and  plants  under  man's  charge.  Now,  as 
here,  where  alone  we  see  evolution  going  on,  it  is 
under  the  guidance  of  superintending  mind, — it  is  a 
justifiable  inference  that  in  nature,  also,  it  goes  on 
under  similar  intelligent  guidance. 

Now,  it  is  the  observation  of  distinguished  men  of 
science  that  we  see  precisely  such  guidance  in  nature. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  Darwinian  theory,  as  I  said, 
that  would  conduct  species  upward  rather  than  down- 
ward. To  account  for  the  steady  upward  progress  we 
must  resort  to  a  higher  cause.  We  must  say  with 
Asa  Gray — "  Variation  has  been  led  along  certain 
beneficial  lines,  like  a  stream  along  definite  and  useful 
lines  of  irrigation."  We  must  say  with  Professor  Owen : 
"  A  purposive  route  of  development  and  change,  of 
correlation  and  interdependence,  manifesting  intelli- 
gent will,  is  as  determinable  in  the  succession  of  races 
as  in  the  development  and  organization  of  the  individ- 
ual. Generations  do  not  vary  accidentally,  in  any 
and  every  direction ;  but  in  preordained,  definite  and 
correlated  courses." 

This  judgment  is  one  which  Professor  Carpenter  has 
also  substantially  agreed  with,  declaring  that  the  his- 


134      TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

tory  of  evolution  is  that  of  a  consistent  advance  along 
definite  lines  of  progress,  and  can  only  be  explained 
as  the  work  of  a  mind  in  nature. 

The  old  argument  from  design,  it  has  been  fre- 
quently said  of  late,  is  quite  overthrown  by  evolution. 
In  one  sense  it  is  :  i.  e.y  the  old  idea  of  a  special  pur- 
pose and  a  separate  creation  of  each  part  of  nature. 
But  the  divine  agency  is  not  dispensed  with  by  evo- 
lution ;  it  is  only  shifted  to  a  different  point  of  appli- 
cation ;  it  is  transferred  from  the  particular  to  the 
general,  from  the  fact  to  the  law.  Paley  compared 
the  eye  to  a  watch,  and  said  it  must  have  been  made 
by  a  divine  hand.  The  modern  scientist  objects  that 
the  eye  has  been  found  to  be  no  hand-work.  It  is  the 
last  result  of  a  complicated  combination  of  forces ;  the 
mighty  machine  of  nature,  which  has  been  grinding  at 
the  work  for  thousands  of  years.  Very  well — but  the 
modern  watch  is  not  made  by  hand,  either ;  but  by  a 
score  of  different  machines.  But  does  it  require  less, 
or  more  intelligence  to  make  the  watch  in  this  way  ? 
Or  if  some  watch  should  be.  discovered  that  was  not 
put  together  by  a  human  hand, — but  formed  by  an- 
other watch,  not  quite  so  perfect  as  itself,  and  this  by 
another  watch,  further  back, — would  the  wonder  and 
the  demand  for  a  superior  intelligence  as  the  origin 
of  the  process  be  any  the  less  ?  Rather  would  it  be 
greater.  The  further  back  you  go  and  the  more  gen- 
eral and  invariable  and  simple  you  suppose  the  funda- 
mental laws  to  have  been  that  brought  all  things  into 
their  present  form,  then  it  seems  to  me,  the  more 
marvelous  becomes  the  miracle  of  the  eye,  the  ear, 
each  bodily  organ  when  recognized  as  a  climax  to 


EVOLUTION  AND  CHRISTIANITY  135 

whose  consummation  each  successive  stage  of  the 
world  has  contributed.  How  much  more  significant 
of  progressive  intelligence  than  any  special  creation  is 
this  related  whole,  this  host  of  co-ordinated  molecules, 
— this  complex  system  of  countless  interwoven  laws 
and  movements,  all  driven  forward,  straight  to  their 
mark,  down  the  vistas  of  the  ages,  to  the  grand  world 
consummation  of  to-day !  What  else  but  Omniscience 
is  equal  to  this  ? 

All  law,  then,  we  should  regard  as  a  divine  opera- 
tion, and  all  divine  operation,  conversely,  obeys  law. 
Whatever  phenomena  we  consider  as  specially  divine 
ought  to  be  most  orderly  and  true  to  nature.  Relig- 
ion, as  far  as  it  is  genuine,  must  therefore  be  natural. 
It  should  be  no  exotic,  no  foreign  graft,  as  it  is  often 
regarded,  but  the  normal  outgrowth  of  our  native  in- 
stincts. Evolution  does  not  banish  revelation  from 
our  belief.  Recognizing  in  man's  spirit  a  spark  of  the 
divine  energy,  "individuated  to  the  power  of  self- 
consciousness  and  recognition  of  God: — tracing  the 
development  of  the  spirit  embryo  through  all  geologic 
time  till  it  came  to  birth  and  independent  life  in  man, 
and  humanity  recognized  itself  as  a  child  of  God,"  the 
communion  of  the  finite  spirit  with  the  infinite  is  per- 
fectly natural.  This  direct  influence  of  the  spirit  of 
God  on  the  spirit  of  man ;  in  conscience  speaking  to 
him  of  the  moral  law ;  through  prophet  and  apostle 
declaring  to  us  the  great  laws  of  spiritual  life  and  the 
beauty  of  holiness — this  is  what  we  call  revelation. 
The  laws  which  it  observes  are  superior  laws, — quite 
above  the  plane  of  material  things.  But  the  work  of 
revelation  is  not  therefore  infallible  or   outside  the 


136      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

sphere  of  evolution.  On  the  contrary,  one  of  the 
most  noticeable  features  of  revelation  is  its  progressive 
character.  In  the  beginning,  it  is  imperfect,  dim  in 
its  vision  of  truth,  often  gross  in  its  forms  of  expres- 
sion. But  from  age  to  age  it  gains  in  clearness  and 
elevation.  In  religion,  as  in  secular  matters,  it  is  the 
lesson  of  the  ages,  that  *'  the  thoughts  of  men  are 
widened  with  the  process  of  the  suns." 

How  short-sighted,  then,  are  they  who  seek  to  com- 
press the  broadening  vision  of  modern  days  within 
the  narrow  loopholes  of  mediaeval  creeds.  "  There  is 
still  more  light  to  break  from  the  words  of  Scripture," 
was  the  brave  protest  of  Robinson  to  the  bigots  of  his 
day.  And  as  we  say  amen,  to  that,  we  may  add — 
"yes;  and  more  light  still  to  come  from  the  whole 
heavens  and  the  whole  earth."  If  we  wish  to  see  that 
light  and  receive  the  richest  rewards  of  God's  reveal- 
ing word,  we  must  face  the  sun  of  truth  and  follow 
bravely  forward. 

As  we  look  back  upon  the  long  path  of  evolution 
up  which  God's  hand  has  already  led  humanity ;  as 
we  see  from  what  lowliness  and  imperfection,  from 
what  darkness  and  grossness  God  has  led  us  to  ouf 
present  heritage  of  truth  and  spiritual  life,  may  we 
not  feel  sure,  that,  if  we  go  forward  obediently,  loyal 
to  reason,  we  shall  find  a  new  heavens  and  more 
glorious,  above  our  head  ;  a  new  earth  and  a  nobler 
field  of  work  beneath  our  feet  ? 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   OLD  TESTAMENT   AS   LITERATURE. 

In  an  age  long  past  there  lived  a  wonderful  artist, 
whom  men  called  the  Divine  Sculptor,  so  grand  and 
beautiful  were  the  productions  of  his  chisel. 

He  had  carved  many  previous  forms  of  beauty ;  but 
one  day,  he  found  a  huge  tusk  shed  by  some  mam- 
moth ;  and  sculpturing  from  it  a  perfect  foot  and  leg, 
he  vowed  that  it  should  be  the  beginning  of  a  statue, 
entirely  carved  in  whitest  ivory. 

It  was  only  very  slowly  that  the  statue  grew ;  for  it 
was  only  at  long  intervals  that  suitable  pieces  of  ivory 
were  found.  But  bit  by  bit,  the  legs,  body,  arms  and 
head  were  built  up,  until  at  last,  after  many  long 
years,  the  artist  completed  his  cherished  work. 

It  was  a  form  of  rarest  nobility,  and  instinct  with 
highest  aspiration,  albeit  full  of  childlike  simplicity 
and  ingenuousness.  It  represented  the  genius  of  his 
nation,  robed  in  quaint  antique  garments,  posed  in  the 
most  natural  of  attitudes,  with  finger  pointing  upward 
to  heaven  and  look  of  devout  rapture.  No  passer-by 
could  fail  to  be  filled  with  admiration  for  this  master- 
piece of  art. 

But,  anon,  war  broke  out ;  invaders  poured  into  the 
land ;  and  the  owners  of  the  precious  statue  for 
safety's  sake,  dismembered  it  and  hid  it  away  in  the 

ground. 

137 


138      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

Long  centuries  rolled  by  ere  it  was  discovered  again 
and  disinterred.  Now,  it  lay  in  fragments,  soiled  with 
the  stains  of  earth  and  water  and  the  ravages  of  time. 

Its  discoverers  revered  it  as  a  divine  image  and  pro- 
ceeded to  put  together  its  separated  members  in  such 
form  as  they  believed  a  divine  image  should  have. 
To  put  the  various  members  in  their  natural  places 
would  make  a  mere  human  image  of  it,  they  thought. 
So,  to  avoid  such  dishonor  and  make  it  into  as  super- 
natural an  image  as  possible,  the  legs  were  inserted  in 
the  armpits,  the  arms  at  the  middle  of  the  back,  the 
ears  were  stuck  in  the  eye-sockets,  the  feet  where 
the  ears  should  have  been,  and  the  head  was  made 
to  sprout  from  below  the  breasts.  And  all  the  people 
bowed  down  to  it ;  and  as  they  knelt  about  it,  they 
covered  up  its  ivory  surface  still  deeper  with  paint  and 
tinsel  and  tawdry  gilding,  and  worshipped  it  as  a  God. 
And,  indeed,  it  was  of  a  certainty,  like  nothing  ever 
seen  on  the  earth  nor  in  the  skies  above  nor  the  waters 
beneath  the  earth. 

So  passed  many  long  ages^  till  the  monstrous  con- 
glomeration had  become  sacred  with  the  hoHness  of  a 
vast  antiquity. 

But  at  length  there  arose  a  man  as  wise  as  he  was 
bold,  who  in  long  and  patient  studies  examined  care- 
fully the  curious  image.  He  scraped  away  the  dust 
and  grime  of  time  and  the  tawdry  gilding  with  which 
the  statue  had  been  overlaid,  and  discovered  the  beau- 
tiful pure  ivory  that  was  hid  beneath.  And  by  com- 
paring the  various  parts,  he  learned  their  normal 
arrangement  and  the  original  human  shape  in  which 
they  had  been  moulded  by  their  great  artificer.     And 


THE  OLD  TESTABIENT  AS  LITERATURE  139 

calling  his  fellow-citizens  together,  he  begged  them  to 
cleanse  the  precious  statue  of  its  meretricious  paint 
and  excrescences  and  rearrange  the  bodily  members 
and  parts  after  a  natural  model  so  that  the  noble  form 
under  which  the  genius  of  the  race  had  been  por- 
trayed might  stand  once  more  before  them. 

But  alas !  he  found  himself  at  once  stigmatized  as 
an  impious  infidel  and  blaspheming  iconoclast,  who 
denied  the  sanctity  and  beauty  of  the  Divine  Being, 
whose  legs  grew  from  his  shoulders,  whose  feet  issued 
from  his  ears,  and  whose  head  sprouted  below  his 
breast.  And  in  their  rage,  the  multitude  took  up 
stones  and  stoned  the  poor  man  till  his  life-blood  ran 
out  on  the  ground  before  the  image;  and  as  they 
stoned  him,  they  shouted :  "  Our  ancient  image  is  not 
human ;  it  is  divine." 

And  as  the  unlucky  reformer  fell  beneath  the  mis- 
siles, he  raised  his  voice  and  said :  "  You  stone  me 
to-day.  But  the  time  will  surely  come  when  your  chil- 
dren shall  see  that  it  is  as  I  say.  Where  I  fall,  an- 
other shall  stand  and  show  you  more  clearly  that  it  is 
not  I,  but  you  who  would  degrade  this  beautiful 
statue.  Another  and  yet  another  shall  come  to  show 
you  what  a  monster  you  have  made  of  this  master- 
piece and  what  a  marvel  of  natural  grandeur  and  grace 
you  may  bring  out  of  this  misshapen  image  if  you 
will  but  rearrange  it  according  to  the  dictates  of  reason 
and  the  type  of  nature.  You  say  it  is  divine  and 
therefore  it  cannot  be  human.  But  I  say  that  it  is 
precisely  because  it  is  so  perfectly  human  that  it  is 
divine, — far  diviner  and  grander  than  you  have  ever 
dreamed.     And  the  grandchildren  of  you  who  to-day 


140      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

are  pelting  me  to  death  shall  then  build  out  of  these 
same  death-dealing  stones,  a  monument  in  my  honor, 
before  the  restored  and  purified  statue  of  the  genius 
of  your  people." 

And  all  the  people  screamed  again  with  rage  and 
threw  another  volley  of  stones  that  silenced  forever 
the  unfortunate  martyr. 

Nevertheless,  in  the  age  of  their  grandchildren,  it 
happened  even  as  the  martyr  had  predicted ;  and  out 
of  the  stones  was  built  a  famous  monument.  And 
when  the  sacred  image  stood  again  before  the  people's 
eyes,  in  all  its  original  nobility  and  naturalness  of 
form,  all  the  nation  wondered  how  blind  their  grand- 
fathers could  have  been  to  adore  the  misshapen 
image. 

He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear  what  the 
Spirit  of  Truth  hath  to  say  here  and  now  to  the 
Christian  Church. 


The  parable  just  related,  as  the  reader  has  doubtless 
guessed,  is  intended  to  illustrate  the  treatment  which 
the  Bible  has  received  at  the  hands  of  men.  Like  the 
statue  of  my  fable,  this  literary  embodiment  of  the 
genius  of  the  Hebrew  race  has  also  been  dismem- 
bered, mangled,  and  distorted  by  mistaken  piety,  and 
covered  thick  with  the  cheap  gilding  of  an  imaginary 
supernaturalism.  Because  it  was  believed  to  be  the 
Word  of  God,  credulous  reverence  has  shut  its  eyes  to 
all  recognition   of  its  human  origin,  and  sought  to 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  AS  LITERATURE  141 

eliminate  from  it  all  natural  traits  and  elements.  And 
when  the  higher  criticism  in  these  latter  days,  has 
essayed  to  restore  to  it  its  original  symmetry  and 
natural  beauty,  and  to  make  manifest  in  its  noble 
humanity  its  true  divineness, — all  the  guns  of  ortho- 
doxy have  been  trained  in  furious  cannonade  upon 
these  alleged  profanations  of  the  Word  of  God. 

In  spite  of  this  ecclesiastical  fusilade,  we  may  safely 
predict  that  it  is  only  a  question  of  time,  and  that,  no 
distant  time,  when  the  Old  Testament  shall  be  looked 
upon  as  literature.  Hitherto  that  is  precisely  the  one 
light  in  which  it  has  not  been  regarded. 

In  the  popular  faith  the  Old  Testament  has  been 
looked  upon  as  everything  else  but  literature.  It  has 
been  regarded  as  a  magazine  of  dogmas  ;  as  a  scientific 
treatise,  making  the  investigations  of  geology  and  bi- 
ology superfluous ;  as  an  infallible  moral  code,  any  one 
of  whose  precepts  overruled  all  the  instincts  of  mercy 
or  the  intuitions  of  conscience ;  as  a  heavenly  double 
acrostic,  every  word  filled  with  threefold  significance, 
natural,  spiritual  and  celestial ;  in  short,  as  a  specimen 
of  supernatural  penmanship,  all  its  parts  equally 
authoritative  and  flawless.  The  result  has  been  to 
give  the  Bible  an  artificial  and  formal  air,  to  separate 
it  from  the  living  world  of  reality,  to  obscure  and  be- 
fog its  natural  excellences,  and  to  fill  it  with  uncalled 
for  difficulties. 

It  is  lamentable,  indeed,  to  recall  the  many  incon- 
sistencies and  incredibilities  which  the  traditional  view 
has  needlessly  raised  up,  transmuting  lyric  metaphors 
into  scientific  marvels,  traditions  of  later  days  into 
contemporaneous    records,   romances    into   autobiog- 


142      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

raphies,  poetry  into  prose,  parables  into  predictions, 
and  love  songs  into  mystic  allegories. 

When  the  Pentateuch  is  claimed  to  be  throughout 
written  by  Moses  himself,  all  the  Psalms  by  David, 
and  the  whole  Old  Testament  to  have  been  so  divinely 
inspired  as  to  be  infallible,  with  what  plain  contra- 
dictions and  insoluble  entanglements  are  we  brought 
face  to  face  ?  It  is  these  especially  that  have  drawn 
upon  the  Bible  the  jeers  and  ridicule  of  the  unbelievers 
and  the  keen  thrust  of  every  skeptic.  They  have  led 
to  the  "  mistakes  of  Moses  "  being  paraded  up  and 
down  the  land,  and  flouted  and  riddled  with  the  most 
cutting  wit  and  the  bitterest  of  mockeries.  And  they 
have  seduced  the  pious-minded,  who  were  not  alto- 
gether irrational,  to  a  further  wrong  to  the  Bible ;  viz., 
to  the  most  desperate  attempts  to  warp  and  twist  the 
sacred  texts  so  as,  somehow,  to  reconcile  the  conflict- 
ing passages. 

But  when  we  look  upon  the  Old  Testament  as 
literature,  we  are  no  longer  tempted  to  torture  in  this 
way  the  simple  statements  of  these  ancient  writers. 
Our  only  ambition  is  to  find  out  what  they  really 
meant.  And  we  are  not  diverted  from  a  consider- 
ation of  their  essential  truth  or  nobleness,  and  put  into 
an  antagonistic,  flaw-picking  attitude  by  extravagant 
claims  for  them  of  a  character  that  they  themselves 
never  pretended  to  possess.  Give  a  young  man,  for 
example,  the  Book  of  Jonah  to  read  as  a  part  of  God's 
infallible  word,  and  how  soon  will  his  reason  (naturally 
led  to  give  a  careful  test  to  any  such  momentous  claim) 
run  against  the  snags  of  the  whale  and  the  gourd  and 
the  other  marvels  of  the  story,  and  the  whole  attention 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  AS  LITERATURE  143 

be  fixed  on  these,  either  to  ridicule  and  reject  or  to 
defend  and  explain  them  away !  Meanwhile  the 
real  lesson  of  the  book,  the  broad  tolerance  and  for- 
givingness  of  spirit,  the  omnipresence  and  universal 
love  of  God,  that  it  aimed  to  inculcate,  is  altogether 
neglected.  But  present  the  book  simply  as  a  piece 
of  ancient  Hterature,  an  old  legend  current  among  the 
Hebrews,  or  a  parable  invented  to  enforce  a  lesson,  and 
how  easily  is  all  the  supernatural  part  of  the  story  seen  to 
be  only  the  imaginative  framework  and  embellishment 
of  its  noble  religious  lesson,  no  more  affronting  com- 
mon sense  or  diverting  attention  from  the  spiritual 
teaching  involved  than  do  the  giants  and  marvels  in 
"  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  prevent  the  reader  of  that  from 
appropriating  the  similar  moral  lessons  therein  con- 
tained ! 

Again,  to  look  upon  the  Old  Testament  as  literature 
gives  it  a  worth  and  an  interest  which  it  has  failed  to 
obtain  under  the  traditional  view.  As  a  piece  of 
divine  penmanship,  as  a  flawless  fetich  before  which 
reason  was  devoutly  to  close  its  eyes,  much  of  it  was 
useless.  Forbidden  to  criticise  or  discriminate,  the 
only  refuge  was  in  ignoring  altogether  large  parts  of 
the  Bible,  and  leaving  their  pages  (after  the  first  read- 
ing from  cover  to  cover,  which  pious  tradition  de- 
manded) henceforth  unopened.  For  here  was  passage 
after  passage,  which  we  were  assured  was  just  as 
sacred  and  true  as  anything  else,  from  which  we  could 
obtain  no  food  for  either  the  mind  or  the  heart.  Here 
were  palpable  antagonisms  of  statement,  impossible  to 
harmonize;  badly  joined  seams  where  earlier  docu- 
ments were  patched  together;  coarse  traditions  that  in 


144      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

any  other  book  would  be  suppressed  as  indelicate; 
ritualistic  details  and  ceremonial  formalities  of  a 
thoroughly  peurile  and  impractical  character,  at  least 
for  our  day  and  generation;  barbarous  revenges  and 
imprecations,  claiming  the  direct  command  of  un- 
doubted inspiration  of  the  divine.  How  many  such 
blots  as  these  burdened  the  sacred  text !  But,  when 
we  recognize  the  Old  Testament  as  literature,  all  these 
things  become  not  only  interesting,  but  valuable. 
These  clumsy  sutures  of  the  earlier  documents  are 
precious  as  fine  gold  and  sweeter  than  the  honeycomb 
to  the  Biblical  critics.  These  palpable  discrepancies 
of  the  accounts  and  the  partisan  or  sectional  bias  dis- 
closed by  each  are  the  precious  seals  identifying  the 
different  documents  and  authors  ;  and  the  very  scien- 
tific mistakes  and  moral  imperfections  that  we  find,  are 
the  water-marks  of  date  and  country,  the  incontestable 
proofs  of  their  antiquity;  and  even  the  very  crudest 
fancies  and  most  barbarous  legends,  wholly  inadmis- 
sible to  the  witness-box  of  history,  are  welcomed  as 
priceless  relics  of  that  primeval  mythologic  age  in 
which  all  religion  and  history  began,  and  are  the  best 
of  evidence  that  the  Jewish  religion  had  the  same 
natural  origin  as  all  other  faiths.  What  can  the  Bible 
reader  who  accepts  it  all  as  one  infallible  Word  of  God 
do  with  such  passages  as  that  where  Jehovah  is  said  to 
"walk  in  the  garden  in  the  cool  of  the  evening"; 
where  the  Elohim  (using  the  polytheistic  plural)  say : 
"  Let  us  make  man  "  ;  "  Behold,  the  man  is  become  as 
one  of  us  "  ?  How  is  the  pious  believer  in  the  in- 
fallibility of  the  Bible  to  explain  the  graven  and 
molten  images;  the  ephods  and  teraphim  which  as 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  AS  LITERATURE  145 

late  as  Samuel's  time  were  a  part  of  the  equipment  of 
a  priest  of  Jehovah ;  the  household  idols  which  David 
kept  in  his  house  ;  the  golden  bulls  worshipped  down 
to  Jeroboam's  day ;  the  relics  of  serpent-worship,  in  the 
brazen  serpent  which,  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Hezekiah, 
was  an  object  of  veneration  among  the  Israelites ;  and 
the  vestiges  of  devil-worship  even,  in  the  goat  carried 
into  the  wilderness  as  a  propitiation  to  the  demon 
Azazel,  disguised  in  our  version  under  the  name 
of  the  scapegoat, — what,  I  say,  on  the  traditional 
theory  of  the  Old  Testament,  can  be  done  with  these 
survivals  of  old  nature  worship  and  beast  worship  left 
in  its  pages,  except  to  pass  over  and  forget  them  as 
quickly  as  possible  ?  But,  when  the  Old  Testament  is 
recognized  as  literature,  they  become  the  most  sig- 
nificant footmarks  of  the  slow  upward  progress  of 
Hebrew  faith,  confirming  the  account,  which  an- 
thropology and  the  history  of  religions  in  general 
have  given,  of  the  successive  stages  of  man's  spiritual 
pilgrimage. 

And  this  leads  us  to  notice  the  new  vividness  and 
human  interest  which  the  sacred  record  gains  when 
its  similarity  of  origin  with  other  books  is  recognized. 

There  is  a  somewhat  familiar  but  instructive  story 
of  a  boy  who,  on  receiving  a  letter  from  a  young 
companion  at  Malta,  speaking  of  his  visit  to  the  place 
of  St.  Paul's  shipwreck,  exclaimed,  "  Why,  father,  did 
that  happen  in  this  world  ?  " 

So  to  many  a  pious  reader  the  incidents  and  char- 
acters of  the  Old  Testament  are  never  realized  as 
actual  occurrences  and  "  flesh-and-blood "  persons, 
but  they  always  stand  before  the  imagination,  as  the 


146      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

old  painters  distinguished  their  saints,  with  a  halo  of 
supernatural  light  about  their  head  and  the  stiffness 
and  unreality  of  so  many  wooden  images  in  all  their 
limbs. 

But  now,  when  we  study  these  records  as  literature, 
we  soon  catch  sight  of  a  host  of  significant  little  hints, 
showing  that  these  old  priests  and  prophets  were  men 
of  Hke  passions  such  as  we  are,  and  that  the  notable 
incidents  in  their  careers  had  their  springs  in  the 
social  forces,  political  exigencies,  or  personal  motives 
of  an  actual,  breathing  world. 

Take  the  figure  of  David,  as  the  man  after  God's 
own  heart,  and  author  of  all  the  Psalms,  as  church 
tradition  has  presented  him  to  us.  Certainly,  this  is  a 
most  inconsistent  and  artificial  figure.  But  the  David 
whom  the  new  criticism  shows,  the  chief  of  a  band  of 
outlaws  who  by  his  military  exploits  rises  to  the 
throne,  brave  and  generous  towards  his  friends,  but 
unrelenting  and  vindictive  towards  his  foes,  and  un- 
scrupulous in  removing  those  who  stood  in  his  ambi- 
tious pathway, — a  nature  at  .war  with  itself,  holding 
within  him  in  constant  struggle  the  typical  virtues  and 
vices  of  a  society  just  passing  over  from  barbarism  to 
semi-civilization, — this  David  is  an  exceedingly  natural 
and  interesting  character. 

Or  take  the  book  of  Job.  Looked  at  as  an  au- 
thoritative revelation  in  explanation  of  the  misfortunes 
of  the  righteous,  it  is  certainly  very  unsatisfactory. 
If  we  consider  it  as  a  direct  revelation  from  God  to 
explain  the  origin  of  evil  and  the  calamities  of  the 
righteous,  that  explanation  amounts  substantially  to 
this,— to  refer  them  to  the  wiles  of  Satan   and   the 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  AS  LITERATURE  147 

capricious  permission  of  the  Almighty,  before  whose 
power  man  should  be  dumb ;  and  it  omits  altogether 
from  the  answer  the  Christian  solution  of  a  future 
personal  life  for  which  this  life  is  the  training. 

As  the  instruction  of  a  divine  revelation,  this  is 
terribly  crude  and  disappointing.  But,  looking  at  Job 
as  hterature,  we  have  in  it  the  most  poignant  depiction 
of  a  soul  in  agony ;  the  most  powerful  presentation 
of  the  struggling  forces  of  doubt,  despair,  indignant 
virtue,  invincible  faith  in  divine  goodness,  pathetic 
humility,  and  the  self-abnegating  devotedness  that  can 
cling  to  the  Divine  Hand  even  when  all  hope  of  per- 
sonal happiness  has  vanished,  that  we  have  in  any 
book,  ancient  or  modern,  East  or  West.  We  may 
discuss  to  the  end  of  time  whether  there  ever  was  an 
historic  Job  who  Hved  in  the  land  of  Uz,  or  whether 
the  book  is  a  pure  fiction ;  but,  surely,  we  cannot 
doubt  that  this  picture  of  Job  on  his  ash-heap,  pierced 
to  the  heart  by  the  unjust  suspicions  of  his  pretended 
friends,  and  pouring  out  his  heart  (as  the  strong  gusts 
of  passion,  at  their  cruel  impeachment  of  his  innocency, 
and  the  billows  of  his  own  unbearable  agony  sweep 
to  and  fro),  in  such  scornful  denials  of  personal  trans- 
gression, such  appeals  to  his  divine  Judge,  such 
dread  misgivings,  now  of  God's  justice,  now  of  his 
own  righteousness,  and  at  last  finding  peace  in  a  child- 
like resignation  to  the  divine  will,  however  bitter, — 
surely,  we  cannot  doubt  that  this  wondrous  representa- 
tion of  bitterest  spiritual  struggle  came  from  a  heart 
that  had  itself  been  in  the  deep  waters,  and  had  to 
tread  the  wine-press  of  grief  alone.  And,  if  we  date 
its  composition  in  the  dark  days  of  the  eighth  century, 


148      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

when  the  old  faith  of  Israel  in  Jehovah's  earthly  re- 
wards to  His  faithful  servants  was  given  such  a  wrench, 
when  the  Northern  kingdom  had  gone  down  in  ruins, 
and  the  terrible  invasions  of  the  Assyrians  swept  over 
their  land,  like  so  many  tornadoes,  respecting  neither 
just  nor  unjust,  and  poor  King  Hezekiah  lived,  as 
Renan  vividly  says,  ''  like  a  bird  on  a  twig,"  watching 
which  way  to  fly  the  next  minute, — then  the  social 
and  political  setting  of  the  picture  makes  it  not 
merely  a  personal  experience,  but  a  national  experi- 
ence and  a  national  enigma  that  are  thus  movingly 
set  before  us. 

Thus  does  the  literary  view  of  the  Old  Testament 
humanize  it,  and  endow  it  with  heightened  power  and 
influence  over  its  readers.  And,  as  it  takes  on  a 
more  graphic  life,  there  comes  with  this,  simultane- 
ously, a  disclosure  of  more  defined  individuality  and 
an  affluence  of  national  genius,  not  before  suspected. 
When  the  Old  Testament  is  regarded  as  a  single  con- 
tinuous Divine  Oracle,  the  tendency,  of  course,  is  to 
overlook  as  much  as  possible  all  diversities  of  author- 
ship or  style,  because  all  must  be  equally  divine, 
equally  perfect.  But,  when  it  is  viewed  as  literature, 
the  varied  contents  of  this  sacred  collection  of  the 
national  remains  are  hailed  with  pleasure,  and  it  be- 
comes quite  astonishing  how  many-sided  the  Israelite 
genius  was.  There  were  not  simply  the  recognized 
three  or  four  kinds  of  books, — law,  prophecy,  history, 
and  psalmody, — but  almost  every  kind  that  any  modern 
encyclopaedia  of  English  or  German  literature  would 
exhibit;  allegory  in  Jotham's  parable;  the  drama  in 
Job ;   satire  in  Ecclesiastes ;  an  opera  or  cantata  in 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  AS  LITERATURE  149 

Canticles ;  ethnographic  tables  of  the  revelations  of 
nations  ;  didactic  poems,  as  in  Proverbs  ;  national  lyrics, 
as  in  a  dozen  or  more  of  the  Psalms ;  primitive  sagas  and 
war-songs,  as  in  the  patriarchal  legends  and  in  the  songs 
of  Moses  and  Deborah ;  fragments  of  epics,  as  in  the 
remnants  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah  and  the  Book  of 
Jashar ;  snatches  of  popular  ditties,  like  the  Song  of 
the  Well  and  the  Sword  Song  of  Lamech ;  historical 
romances,  like  Daniel  and  Esther ;  novels  with  a  pur- 
pose, like  Jonah ;  poHtical  polemics  and  orations, 
such  as  some  of  the  prophetical  writings  may  quite 
properly  be  called.  Such  is  the  remarkable  variety  in 
the  contents  of  the  Old  Testament  that  we  find  in  it, 
when  viewed  as  literature. 

Or  look  through  the  lens  of  Biblical  criticism  at 
writers  of  the  same  class,  among  whom  we  have  here- 
tofore supposed  little  diversity  because  all  were  in  such 
a  peculiar  way  the  mouthpieces  of  the  divine  inspira- 
tion. I  mean  the  prophets.  Notice  how  enigmatic 
and  vaguely  figurative  are  some  of  them ;  how  confi- 
dent and  precise  in  their  predictions,  a  second  class ; 
and  how  much  shrewder  and  more  nearly  accurate  in 
their  forecasts,  a  third  class.  And  it  is  by  no  means 
those  who  were  most  bold  and  self-assured  in  their 
predictions  whom  history  has  most  confirmed. 

What  an  interesting  diversity  of  personal  character- 
istics and  literary  style  distinguishes  them,  as  we  fol- 
low down  the  stream  of  history !  Notice  the  rustic 
figures  of  speech  and  pastoral  simplicity  of  the  first 
two, — Amos  and  Hosea, — a  style  straightforward, 
sententious,  and  pregnant  with  compressed  feeling. 
In  Micah,  also,  we  have  another  "  man  of  the  people," 


150      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

terse  and  strong  of  utterance,  denouncing  in  scathing 
terms  the  wrongs  suffered  by  the  poor  of  Israel  at  the 
hands  of  the  rich  and  noble. 

In  Isaiah  we  meet  with  a  genius  of  different  type, 
familiar  with  the  best  society  of  the  times  and  with 
international  politics,  possessed  of  a  glowing  wealth 
of  imagination  and  vividness  of  illustration,  clothed  in 
a  diction  of  dignified  splendor  and  energetic  elegance. 

In  Nahum  and  Habakkuk  we  have  two  more  ardent 
spirits,  pouring  out  their  impassioned  thoughts  in  the 
boldest  of  imagery.  What  dramatic  power,  especially, 
is  there  in  that  "  Pindaric  Ode  "  of  Habakkuk's,  as  it  has 
been  called,  where  he  looks  forth  from  his  watch- 
tower  to  see  what  the  Lord  will  show  him,  and  de- 
scribes with  such  majesty  of  thought  and  diction  the 
vision  of  the  woes  drawing  nigh  to  his  people ! 

As  we  come  down  to  the  times  of  the  Babylonish 
captivity,  we  hear  the  deepened  tragedy  of  Israel's  fate 
reverberating  in  the  melancholy  cadences  of  its  great 
writers  ;  in  the  artless  pathos  of  Jeremiah's  voice  so 
broken  with  patriotic  tears ;  and  in  the  sombre  im- 
agery and  weird  allegorical  figures  of  Ezekiel  (though 
often,  it  must  be  confessed,  somewhat  overloaded  and 
bizarre).  In  the  impassioned  rhetoric  of  the  second 
Isaiah  in  the  heart-moving  touches,  picturesque  im- 
agery, and  superbly  effective  personifications  of  this 
great  unknown  prophet  of  the  sixth  century,  the  poet- 
ical genius  of  Israel  reached  its  climax ;  and  in  the 
clear,  logical,  and  dialectic  treatment  of  his  theme  in 
Malachi, — going  without  any  flourish  right  at  the  pith 
of  the  matter, — we  see  that  the  roll  of  the  prophets  is 
about  to  be  closed,  and  that  a  simpler,  more  concise 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  AS  LITERATURE  151 

and    lucid    school   of    writing   is   about   to   succeed 
them. 

And  not  only  has  the  study  of  Biblical  literature 
brought  out  the  individualities  of  the  different  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  in  instructive  clearness,  but 
within  the  envelope  of  what  had  been  deemed  the 
work  of  single  authors  it  discovers  a  multiplicity  of 
hands,  and  points  out  their  personal  characteristics  in 
a  most  interesting  manner.  As  the  telescope  and 
spectrum  of  the  astronomer  have  resolved  what 
seemed  single  stars  into  binary  or  ternary  solar  sys- 
tems, so  has  the  lens  of  higher  criticism  shown  us 
Isaiah  and  Zachariah  to  be  each  a  double  star,  and  the 
Pentateuch  of  Moses  to  be  a  complex  system  of  four 
or  five,  or  perhaps  even  more,  noble  literary  suns  and 
planets.  This  complex  composition  and  gradual 
growth,  throughout  six  or  seven  centuries,  of  the  first 
five  books,  not  long  ago  ascribed  to  Moses  alone  as 
their  author,  is  the  most  notable  achievement  of  the 
higher  criticism.  It  has  endowed  this  part  of  the 
Old  Testament,  to  the  eager  student  of  truth  and  to 
all  spirits  ambitious  of  disentangling  knotty  problems, 
with  a  fascination  akin  to  that  which  the  authorship  of 
Junius  had  in  the  last  century,  or  the  decipherment  of 
the  Assyrian  hieroglyphics  has  in  our  day.  Renan 
has  well  compared  the  task,  in  its  delicacy  and  diffi- 
culty, to  the  decipherment  of  the  papyri  of  Hercu- 
laneum,  whose  pages  were  so  imbedded  and  stuck 
together  into  calcined  blocks  that,  though  the  letters 
might  be  visible,  it  was  impossible  to  say  to  what  page 
they  respectively  belonged.  But,  as  the  careful  un- 
rolling and  patching  together  of  these  papyri  by  the 


152      TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  TEE  NEW  TEOUGET 

classical  scholars  have  introduced  consistent  order  into 
these  manuscripts,  so  have  the  patient  comparisons 
and  piecings-together  of  these  Biblical  documentary 
layers  and  fragments  by  Graf  and  Wellhausen,  and 
especially  by  that  prince  of  Biblical  critics,  Kuenen, 
succeeded  in  building  up  again  the  ancient  medley  of 
historical  and  legendary  remains  into  an  intelligible 
literary  structure. 

Church  history  tells  us  that  in  the  second  century 
an  early  predecessor  of  Dr.  Robinson  in  the  work  of 
gospel  welding  and  tinkering,  mortised  together,  out 
of  the  four  gospels,  a  harmony  of  the  hfe  of  Christ 
which  he  called  the  Diatessaron.  Now,  suppose  this 
compilation  had  been  so  successful  that  Matthew, 
Mark,  Luke,  and  John  had  no  longer  been  copied  in 
their  original  and  independent  form,  but  had  been  en- 
tirely swallowed  up  by  the  new  compilation,  and  the 
very  memory  of  their  separate  existence  been  quite 
forgotten.  Suppose  that  the  new  compilation  had 
been  baptized  with  the  name  "the  Books  of  Jesus," 
and  that  the  Church  should  then  have  resisted  as  pious 
profanation  the  idea  that  any  part  of  this  patchwork 
calling  itself  the  authentic  history  of  Christ  was  writ- 
ten by  any  one  except  the  man  of  Nazareth  with  His 
own  hand !  Then  we  should  have  a  pretty  fair  par- 
allel to  the  way  that  the  students  of  the  Pentateuch 
have  been  fettered,  and  the  difficulties  that  they  have 
had  to  contend  with  in  analyzing  the  so-called  Books 
of  Moses.  But,  as  no  one  to-day  would  think  that  the 
fourfold  gospel  narrative  and  its  complex  testimony 
would  have  gained  either  interest  or  historic  value  if 
it  had  been  thus  superseded  by  Tatian's  single  com- 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  AS  LITERATURE  153 

pilation,  so  no  one  ought  to  fail  to  see  how  much  the 
Pentateuch  really  gains  in  attractiveness  and  power  by 
this  critical  disinterment  of  the  four  or  five  separate 
writings  that  have  been  hitherto  engulfed  by  it.  It 
gives  us  that  invaluable  base  line  of  measurement  and 
parallax  of  position  only  to  be  had  where  two  or  more 
different  points  of  view  are  found.  It  enables  us  to 
estimate  better  the  refraction  of  the  lines  of  historic 
fact  produced  by  the  sectional  or  political  or  ecclesi- 
astic bias  of  the  various  writers.  And  it  adds  to  the 
illustrious  group  of  Hebrew  authors  four  or  five  no- 
table figures,  who,  though  unnamed,  possess  most 
marked  personal  characteristics  as  well  as  local  and 
partisan  traits. 

In  the  earliest  of  these,  the  second  Elohist,  we  dis- 
cover a  writer  of  the  ninth  or  tenth  century,  b.  c, 
living  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bethel  or  Shechem, 
who  delighted  in  collecting  the  old  folk-lore  and  pa- 
triarchial  legends  of  his  race,  and  who  has  given  us  a 
most  charming  and  ingenuous  picture  of  the  primitive 
ages  of  humanity.  Piquant  and  naive  in  style,  marked 
by  a  certain  infantile  candor  and  rough  sublimity, 
devotedly  chronicling  all  the  quaint  myths  and  ethno- 
graphic genealogies  and  details  that  he  heard  of; 
with  patriotic  pride  claiming  for  the  ancestors  of  the 
Northern  tribes  ancient  possession  of  all  the  good 
things  of  the  country ;  quite  ignorant  of  any  law  lim- 
iting sacrifices  or  altars  to  Jerusalem;  betraying  a 
scarcely  veiled  polytheism  on  every  page, — this  first 
collection  of  the  Israelite  legends,  which  became  the 
nucleus  round  which  the  rest  of  the  Bible  formed 
itself,  has  well  been  compared  by  Renan  to  Homer,  so 


154      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

fresh  and  sparkling  is  it  with  the  morning  dew  of 
humanity's  childhood.  "  This  unknown  writer,"  says 
Renan,  with  but  little  if  any  exaggeration  "  has 
created  half  the  poetry  of  humanity.  His  stories 
are  like  a  breath  of  the  world's  springtime;  their 
freshness  is  only  equaled  by  their  crude  grandeur; 
man,  when  these  pages  were  written,  still  lived  in  a 
world  of  myths.  Multitudes  of  Elohim  filled  the  air, 
manifested  by  mysterious  whispers,  unknown  noises 
and  terrors  which  produced  panic.  Man  had  noc- 
turnal struggles  with  them,  out  of  which  he  emerged 
wounded.  Elohim  appeared  in  triple  form,  and  his 
sons  take  unto  them  wives  of  the  daughters  of  men. 
Morality  is  scarcely  born ;  the  mind  of  the  Elohim  is 
capricious,  sometimes  absurd  ;  the  world  is  very  small, 
heaven  is  reached  by  a  ladder,  or,  rather,  a  pyramid 
with  steps  ;  messengers  constantly  pass  from  earth  to 
the  empyrean.  Dreams  are  celestial  revelations, 
visions  of  God  "     (Renan,  pp.  177,  178,  vol.  II). 

In  the  author  of  the  second  great  stratum  of  the 
Pentateuch  (or,  perhaps  more*  accurately,  the  Hexa- 
teuch ;  for  the  Book  of  Joshua  is  an  integral  part  and 
close  continuation  of  the  first  five  books)  we  have 
probably  a  man  of  the  Southern  kingdom,  but  of  the 
eight  or  ninth  century,  b.  c,  and  of  quite  a  different 
type  of  mind.  His  genius  is  less  unsophisticated  and 
sunny.  He  is  a  man  of  a  sombre  and  austere  temper- 
ament and  more  philosophic  cast  of  mind,  oppressed 
with  the  consciousness  of  the  sin  in  the  world  and 
full  of  forebodings  of  the  wrath  of  Jehovah ;  empha- 
sizing the  jealous  nature  and  irresistible  will  of  the 
*'  I  AM,"  greatest  of  all  the  gods  ;  delighting  in  medi- 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  AS  LITERATURE  155 

tations  and  explanations  of  the  origin  of  evil  and  in 
chronicling  the  woes  that  descend  upon  sinful  hu- 
manity. CiviHzation  to  him  is  a  path  of  decadence 
and  demoralization;  the  thirst  for  knowledge  is  the 
root  of  all  evil ;  social  progress,  a  defiance  of  God's 
laws  and  loss  of  Paradise ;  the  first  city  originated  in 
murder  and  transgression.  As  a  religious  creator,  he 
takes  the  first  rank.  He  was  the  original  Calvinist, 
the  spiritual  father  of  Jeremiah,  Paul,  Augustine,  Mo- 
hammed, Jonathan  Edwards,  and  all  that  ilk.  As 
Renan  well  says,  "The  ceiHng  of  the  San  Sistine 
Chapel,  with  its  tremendous  pictures  of  the  awful 
divine  judge  and  the  retributions  of  those  who  dis- 
obey his  autocratic  will,  is  the  best  illustration  of  this 
remarkable  writer.  Michael  Angelo  is  the  only  artist 
who  could  interpret  the  Jahvist ;  for  he  is  truly  his 
brother  in  genius  "     (Renan,  p.  302,  vol.  II). 

In  the  author  of  the  third  great  stratum  we  find  a 
still  different  type  of  mind  from  either  the  preceding ; 
a  man  of  superior  culture,  employing  a  warm  and 
persuasive  eloquence  ;  fond  of  stately  periods ;  exhib- 
iting a  decidedly  purer  and  higher  tone,  both  ethically 
and  religiously.  The  author  of  the  patriarchal  legends 
had,  as  we  noticed,  hardly  got  out  of  the  shell  of 
polytheism.  The  Jehovist  was  only  in  the  stage  of 
Monarcho-theism,  revering  Jehovah  as  the  first  among 
the  gods.  The  Deuteronomist  carries  us  on  to  the 
next  stage, — not  monotheism,  but  monolatry,  in  which, 
while  the  existence  of  other  gods  was  still  recognized, 
Jehovah  was  proclaimed  the  unique  God,  the  sole 
object  of  worship,  and  thus  did  the  world  the  inesti- 
mable service  of  providing  the  next  higher  step  in  the 


156      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  TEE  NEW  THOUGHT 

staircase  of  religion,  from  which  the  second  Isaiah, 
Jesus,  and  Paul  mounted  to  that  of  a  true  monotheism, 
in  which  Jehovah  was  not  merely  the  only  God  to  be 
worshipped,  but  the  only  God  in  existence,  the  One 
over  all,  in  all,  and  through  all. 

It  was  in  the  seventh  century,  shortly  before  or  else  in 
during  the  reign  of  Josiah,  that  the  Deuteronomist  wrote. 
For  a  long  time  it  was  thought  that  the  next  great 
contributor  to  this  literary  edifice  added  his  notable 
fourth  story,  the  priestly  and  legal  part,  about  the 
same  time.  But,  while  there  may  have  been  many 
additions  made  at  this  time,  the  best  critics,  Graf, 
Kuenen,  and  Wellhausen,  now  put  the  date  of  this 
priestly  reviser  and  the  most  of  the  sacerdotal  legisla- 
tion, including  also  the  noble  proem,  the  Creation  Ode 
of  the  first  chapter,  as  late  as  the  time  of  the  Baby- 
lonish captivity, — the  fifth  century,  b.  c.  This  ac- 
counts for  the  numerous  reminiscences  and  readapta- 
tions  of  Assyrian  legend  that  he  has  introduced  and 
the  absence  of  allusions  to  this  priestly  code  in  the 
prophets  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries.  This 
priestly  reviser,  sometimes  called  the  first  Elohist 
(because  he  usually  speaks  of  the  divine  only  under 
the  name  of  Elohim  down  to  the  time  when  the  reve- 
lation of  God  as  Jahveh  is  made  to  Moses,  in  Exodus 
XII),  was  a  native  of  the  south, — probably  a  resident 
in  Jerusalem.  He  possessed  scientific  tastes ;  had  a 
fondness  for  genealogies,  a  more  precise  style ;  aimed 
to  inculcate  moral  lessons  and  preserve  the  memory 
of  religious  customs  ;  exhibited  a  mind  more  reflective 
and  exact;  sympathized  with  the  southern  tribes  of 
Judah  and  Benjamin ;  avoided  as  far  as  possible  th© 


THE  OLD  TESTA 3IENT  AS  LITERATURE  157 

anthropomorphism  of  the  northern  narrators  ;  and  ex- 
hibits both  a  higher  moraHty  and  a  purer  theism.  He 
has  encumbered  his  narrative,  nevertheless,  with  a 
most  wearisome  and  formal  mass  of  ceremonial  details. 
He  is  the  ardent  devotee  of  ecclesiastical  theocracy, 
and  has  not  hesitated,  in  his  enthusiasm,  to  map  out  a 
whole  priestly  Utopia,  an  imposing  air  castle  of  sacer- 
dotal laws,  customs,  events,  and  institutions,  con- 
structed with  such  precise  and  realistic  details  that  for 
ages  it  was  held  to  have  been  a  veritable  part  of 
Hebrew  history  and  experience. 

And  this  suggests  a  few  words  upon  the  great  gain 
which  our  conception  of  Hebrew  history  and  the 
course  of  its  literary  development  has  made  by  this 
critical  reconstruction  of  the  proper  succession  of  its 
various  books  and  documents.  What  a  travesty  of 
the  literary  and  religious  history  of  India  should  we 
make  if  we  presented  it  in  the  following  order :  first, 
the  ceremonial  legislation  of  Manu ;  next,  the  Vedic 
songs  and  myths  ;  third,  the  subtle,  speculative  Upani- 
shads ;  and  lastly,  the  practical  moral  reforms  and 
spiritual  teachings  !  But  it  is  just  such  a  topsy-turvy 
picture  of  the  course  of  Jewish  faith  and  thought  that 
the  traditional  view  of  the  Old  Testament  has  given 
us,  putting  its  monotheism  at  the  very  beginning, 
supposing  away  back  in  the  time  of  Moses  a  most 
minute  and  elaborate  legislation  and  complicated, 
pedantic  ritual  system  already  full  blown,  and  present- 
ing this  as  succeeded  by  such  an  epoch  of  political 
and  social  chaos,  such  a  period  of  crude  morals  and 
unregulated  worship,  and  rude,  almost  savage  legends 
as   we   find   in  Judges  and  Samuel,  "when"  as  the 


158      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

record  says,  "  every  one  did  what  was  good  in  his  own 
eyes." 

The  history  of  literature  and  the  science  of  com- 
parative religion  show  us,  in  all  the  great  civiHzations 
of  Europe  and  Asia,  the  same  law  of  literary  develop- 
ment, from  the  childlike  to  the  reflective,  from  the 
simple  to  the  complex ;  and  also  the  same  course  of 
religious  evolution,  first  rude  nature-worship  and 
fetichism,  then,  advance  through  idolatry  and  poly- 
theism towards  theism  and  spiritual  religion.  First  we 
have  the  diviner  and  the  soothsayer  and  the  bard,  the 
childlike  chanter  of  primitive  war-songs  and  myths, 
next  the  prophet,  and  after  him  the  priest.  Now,  the 
traditional  theory  reverses  this,  and  puts  at  the  dawn 
of  Hebrew  life  and  literature  that  elaborate  sacerdotal- 
ism which  everywhere  else  comes  only  in  the  evening 
of  the  national  life.  But,  when  we  study  the  Old 
Testament  as  literature  under  the  microscope  of  the 
higher  criticism,  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  evolution 
of  the  Hebrew  genius  becomes  again  a  natural  one, 
exhibiting  the  same  normal  succession  as  the  national 
consciousness  of  India,  Egypt,  Persia,  and  Greece. 
Thus  a  new  orderliness  is  given  to  the  Old  Testament, 
and  with  it  a  greater  intelligibleness. 

And  in  another  way  also  does  the  literary  view  of 
the  Bible  give  it  a  clearer  comprehensibility ;  namely 
by  permitting  us  to  use  sources  of  illumination  that  on 
the  traditional  theory  are  at  once  ruled  out.  What 
new  light  is  supplied  for  understanding  the  Genesis 
stories  of  the  fall,  the  deluge,  and  the  Tower  of  Babel, 
when  we  can  illustrate  them  by  their  Assyrian  ana- 
logues, if  not  sources  ?     How  much  more  intelligible 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  AS  LITERATURE  159 

becomes  the  story  of  Samson,  when  we  are  free  to 
recognize  many  of  its  distinctive  features  as  derived 
from  the  primitive  sun-myth,  of  which  here  we  have  a 
degraded  survival,  perhaps  grafted  upon  some  legendary 
stock  !  And,  especially,  what  an  illumination  is  given 
to  Solomon's  Song  of  Songs,  which  in  our  King 
James'  version  is  so  darkly  obscured  by  the  interpo- 
lated headings  which  refer  it  to  a  mystical  marriage 
of  Christ  and  the  Church,  when  we  accept  it  as  a 
pastoral  cantata,  commemorating  the  fidelity  of  true 
love,  unmoved  by  the  blandishments  of  rank  and 
luxury  !  Instead  of  its  being  a  dialogue  between  two, 
we  must  suppose,  as  Ewald  has  shown  in  such  a 
masterly  manner,  a  chorus  and  at  least  three  principal 
characters ;  namely,  the  Shulamite  maiden,  the  shep- 
herd lover  to  whom  she  has  pledged  her  affection,  and 
Solomon,  the  king,  who,  captivated  with  her  beauty, 
has  taken  her  from  her  native  village  to  his  mag- 
nificent palace,  and  who  thinks  that  by  the  glittering 
prospect  he  opens  before  her,  as  his  favorite,  he  may 
induce  her  to  abandon  her  rustic  home  and  betrothed 
husband.  By  her  steadfast  resistance  to  the  king's 
solicitations  the  loyal  maid,  however,  at  last  convinces 
Solomon  of  the  hopelessness  of  his  passion,  and  obtains 
permission  to  return  to  the  shepherd  lover  whom  she 
cannot  forget ;  and  at  the  close  of  the  poem  the  faith- 
ful couple  appear  hand  in  hand,  expressing  in  glowing 
strains  the  superiority  of  genuine  affection,  though  in 
the  humblest  lot,  over  any  union  that  riches  or 
position  may  buy.  This  is  a  meaning  that  nobly 
vindicates  the  place  which  the  Song  of  Songs  has  so 
strangely,  but  fortunately,  retained  in  the  sacred  canon. 


160      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

And  this  brings  me  to  my  final  point,  the  increased 
value  of  the  Old  Testament, — the  higher  claim  upon 
our  admiration  and  our  reverence  that  it  gains  when 
viewed  as  literature.  All  its  natural  beauties  and 
excellences,  of  old  so  obscured  by  the  artificial  theories 
of  its  supernatural  dictation,  now  emerge  to  delight 
us.  What  admirable  character-painting  is  disclosed  in 
the  ingenious  delineations  of  the  three  great  patriarchs 
and  their  successors, — Joseph,  Deborah,  Samuel,  Saul, 
David,  and  Elijah !  How  sharp,  forceful,  naive  and 
pathetic  are  these  memorable  personalities,  outlined 
often  with  such  few  but  graphic  strokes  of  the  pen  ! 
Surely,  nowhere  else  than  in  Shakspere  himself  can 
we  find  such  a  wonderful  portrait  gallery  of  figures,  so 
diversified  and  full  of  breathing  life,  as  we  find  in  the 
patriarchal  legends  of  Genesis  and  the  historic  sketches 
of  Judges,  Samuel  and  Kings.  Or,  if  we  can  disabuse 
ourselves  of  the  inclination  to  look  upon  it  as  either 
science  or  revelation,  and  consider  it  only  as  poetry, 
what  a  splendid,  inspiring  ode  have  we  in  that  Psalm 
of  Creation  that  makes  the  first  chapter  of  the  Bible 
memorable !  How  superb  the  lyric  strains  of  many 
of  the  Psalms !  What  a  vigorous  and  copious  expo- 
sition of  the  grandeurs  of  nature  are  given  by  them, 
especially  by  that  103d  Psalm,  which  as  Humboldt 
said,  is  "  in  itself  an  outline  of  the  universe."  What 
persuasive  springs  of  consolation,  what  powerful  ethical 
instruction,  do  the  pages  of  the  prophets  furnish  ! 

I  know,  of  course,  the  many  dark  stains  that  mar 
the  moral  tone  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  grave  incon- 
sistencies of  its  spiritual  teaching.  When  viewed  as 
an  infallible  book,  a  web  divinely  woven,  all  of  one 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  AS  LITERATURE  161 

cloth,  these  stains  are  fatal  to  its  claims.  But,  when 
we  look  upon  it  as  the  spiritual  history  of  a  nation 
feeling  its  way  to  God,  it  has  no  superior.  It  possesses 
certainly  that  best  of  inspiration,  the  power  of  in- 
spiring and  uplifting  its  readers.  Take  Conway's 
''  Sacred  Anthology"  or  Max  Muller's  fuller  "  Sacred 
Books  of  the  East,"  and  compare  the  other  Oriental 
Scriptures  with  the  Bible,  and  the  more  thoroughly 
you  know  the  literature  of  the  rest  of  the  world, 
the  more  sure  will  you  be  that,  on  the  whole,  with 
all  its  crudities  and  coarseness  and  vengefulness  on 
its  head,  the  Bible  stands  far  above  all  other 
scriptures  in  purity  and  elevation  of  tone.  Grant 
that  the  vestiges  of  polygamy,  slavery,  idolatry, 
witch-burning,  bloody  revenges,  and  religious  per- 
secutions may  be  inbedded  here,  like  the  scales  of 
hideous  dragons  of  the  sHme  in  a  slab  of  the  Saurian 
period.  Yet  they  are  but  the  marks  of  the  outgrown 
shells,  the  off-cast  skins  which  the  spiritual  genius  of 
Israel  successively  sloughed  off,  and  left  behind  it. 
They  are  but  the  lower  rounds  of  that  heavenly  ladder 
which  the  religious  consciousness  of  the  Hebrews  one 
after  another  trod  beneath  it,  and  rose  above,  as  it 
struggled  slowly  to  the  recognition  and  proclamation 
of  the  purest  religious  truths  known  to  antiquity.  All 
these  relics  of  a  lower  stage  of  thought  and  conduct 
but  bear  witness  to  the  naturalness  and  progressive- 
ness  of  the  religious  evolution.  Nowhere  else  in  all 
literature  is  there  a  more  striking  and  valuable  pan- 
orama of  the  development  of  the  spiritual  conscious- 
ness of  a  nation.  What  pictures  of  spiritual  heroism, 
standing  undaunted  against  all  odds ;  what  wise  counsels 


162      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

to  youth ;  what  moving  and  uplifting  outpourings  of 
devout  thankfulness;  what  manly  denunciations  of 
wrong  and  injustice ;  what  appealing  strains  of  peni- 
tence and  devout  trust ;  what  comfort  to  the  bereaved 
and  support  for  the  tempted  beam  from  these  pages, 
as  the  morning  stars  when  they  sing  together  in  their 
Maker's  honor,  and  make  the  benediction  of  this  book, 
in  spite  of  all  its  flaws,  unparalleled  in  the  history  of 
humanity.  And  this  benediction  shall  be  all  the 
greater,  when  those  who  profess  to  reverence  its  lustre 
shall  no  more  "  breathe  on  it,  as  they  bow,"  but,  freed 
from  artificial  tinsel  and  glamour,  it  shall  shine  forth 
in  all  its  natural  beauty,  symmetry,  and  matchless 
worth. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CHRISTIAN   DISCIPLESHIP   AND   MODERN   LIFE. 

Some  years  ago  there  was  published  in  England  a 
striking  story  which  gave  the  imaginary  history  of  a 
young  Cornish  carpenter,  Joshua  Davidson  by  name, 
who  takes  all  that  he  is  taught  in  church  and  Sunday- 
school  with  entire  literalness  and  endeavors  to  act 
accordingly. 

He  is  assured  that  every  word  in  the  gospels  is  liter- 
ally true ;  that  every  command  and  exhortation  should 
be  strictly  obeyed ;  that  every  promise  may  be  confi- 
dently relied  upon ;  and  that,  as  Christ  is  set  forth  as 
our  pattern.  He  ought  to  be  faithfully  imitated. 

Poor  Joshua, — learning  all  this  every  Sunday  and 
from  every  pulpit ;  and  being  moreover,  peremptorily 
assured  of  it  by  his  rector,  when,  in  his  dawning  per- 
plexities, he  ventures  to  question  that  august  function- 
ary, resolves  to  shape  his  whole  life,  by  the  standard 
thus  set  up  for  him.  Trusting  in  the  text  of  Christ's 
promise  to  His  disciples,  he  ate  poisonous  berries  and 
nearly  died  in  consequence.  He  handled  serpents  and 
was  greatly  astonished  to  find  himself  severely  bitten 
by  the  vipers.  And  to  the  doctor  who  came  to  at- 
tend him,  he  talked  so  much  primitive  Christianity 
that  the  good  man  set  him  down  as  a  lunatic.  In  fine, 
poor  Joshua,  merely  by  trying  in  all  sincerity,  to  do 
on  week  days,  what  every  Sabbath  he  was  told  our 

163 


164      TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

pattern  did,  and  he  himself  ought  therefore  to  do,  was 
forever  getting  into  scrapes  and  being  bulHed  by  his 
teachers  for  really  believing  what  they  told  him. 

When  he  gets  through  school,  he  goes  to  London 
and  seeks  to  lead  there,  an  unflinching  Christian  life. 
He  tries  to  reform  a  regular  jail-bird,  nearly  gets  in- 
volved in  his  iniquities  and  is  publicly  beaten  by  the 
ruffian. 

He  succeeds  in  rescuing  a  poor  Magdalen,  but  he 
loses  his  own  repute  among  his  neighbors  by  taking 
her  into  his  own  house ;  the  only  place  of  refuge  he 
knew  of  to  offer  her.  He  sets  up  a  night  school  for 
the  scamps  and  villains  who  swarm  in  the  court  where 
he  lives ;  but  they  are  so  turbulent  that  the  police  ar- 
rest him  as  a  harborer  of  disorderly  characters. 

Poor  Joshua,  finding  his  own  little  strength  so  una- 
vailing to  stem  the  seething  tide  of  evil,  comes  to  the 
conclusion  that  society  itself  must  be  revolutionized 
before  Christianity  can  have  any  chance  of  being 
carried  out  in  practice.  He  looks  into  his  New  Testa- 
ment and  finds  that  the  early  Christians  had  all  things 
in  common;  and  he  leaps  to  the  conclusion  that 
Christianity  requires  the  equalization  of  classes. 
Capital,  the  aristocracy  of  wealth  and  the  antagonisms 
of  upper  and  lower  classes  and  class  distinctions,  con- 
stituted, he  believed,  the  Upas  tree  that  poisons 
Christendom  ;  and  he  becomes  an  itinerant  lecturer  to 
rouse  the  masses  to  shake  off  these  fetters  and  adopt 
socialistic  principles ;  and  at  length  goes  to  Paris  and 
joins  the  Communists,  fancying  their  communistic 
scheme  the  most  hopeful  attempt  to  work  out  the 
principles   of  Jesus.     But  even  here,   no  happier  lot 


CHRISTIAN  DISCIPLESHIP  AND  MODERN  LIFE    165 

awaited  him.  The  ruffians  and  fanatics  of  that  awful 
travesty  nearly  tore  him  in  pieces,  because  of  his  ad- 
herence to  Christ ;  his  faithful  Magdalen  was  shot  as 
an  incendiary ;  and  he  himself  on  his  return  to  Eng- 
land, was  trampled  to  death  by  an  enraged  mob  whom 
he  was  addressing,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  Com- 
munist, a  republican  and  an  atheist. 

This  tragic  story  puts  in  a  striking  light  the  opposi- 
tion which  I  suppose,  all  have  sometimes  remarked, 
between  much  of  our  popular  preaching  and  the  con- 
duct, actually  current  in  society  and  required  by  it. 
It  is  a  cutting  satire  upon  the  inconsistency,  perhaps 
we  might  say,  the  cowardice  or  dishonesty  of  those 
who  teach  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  that  every 
word  of  the  Bible  is  to  be  taken  with  a  literalness  with 
which  we  take  no  other  book,  and  on  the  remaining 
six,  act  like  the  veriest  unbeliever  and  heathen.  Nay 
— it  suggests  a  deeper  question ;  it  presses  upon  us  the 
inquiry, — is  Christianity  indeed  applicable  to  modern 
society  and  our  existing  civilization  ?  Is  it  obligatory, 
or  is  it  practicable,  is  it  wise  or  right  to  obey  and  act 
out  the  precepts  and  examples  of  the  gospel  in  this 
present  year  of  our  Lord  ?  Or  on  the  other  hand  is 
Christianity  to  be  reckoned  an  obsolete  law, — a  beau- 
tiful tradition,  to  be  kept  like  a  rare  cup  of  old  china, 
high  up  on  a  shelf,  admiringly  to  be  gazed  upon  and 
reverenced,  but  never  used  in  daily  life  ? 

It  is  easy  to  say  of  such  a  story — "  It  is  an  extrava- 
ganza. It  presents  difficulties  that  do  not  occur  in 
daily  life."  This  is  certainly  true.  But  nevertheless 
would  it  be  an  extravaganza,  if  Christians  were  true 
to  their  professions  ?     Would  its  difficulties  be  inex- 


166      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

perienced  if  the  ''  Imitation  of  Christ "  showed  itself  in 
Hving  men  and  women  in  our  streets,  instead  of  in 
book  covers  on  our  tables  or  sermons  in  our  pulpits  ? 

Where  is  the  Church  member  in  the  strictest  of 
churches,  who  entirely  imitates  the  examples  of  the 
New  Testament  ?  Where  is  he  who  will  step  on  the 
sea,  trusting  to  be  sustained  like  Christ  and  Peter,  by 
the  power  of  faith  ?  Where  is  the  Christian  who  be- 
lieves it  to  be  his  precise  duty  to  call  nothing  his  own, 
but  to  hold  everything  literally  in  common  with  all 
his  brother  Christians  ?  Who  to-day  holds  it  to  be  his 
Christian  duty,  in  simple  truth,  like  the  liUes.to  toil  not, 
neither  to  spin  ;  or  Hke  the  ravens,  to  sow  not,  nor  reap, 
nor  gather  into  barns  ?  Or  if  there  are  such  Christians 
what  does  our  modern  science  and  political  economy 
have  to  say  to  them  ?  What,  indeed,  is  the  tone  of 
current  remark  in  Christian  circles  upon  such  pro- 
ceedings ?  Doubtless  many  of  these  inconsistencies, 
(numbers  of  which  will  occur  to  every  one)  are  not  so 
much  inconsistencies  of  modern  Hfe  with  the  gospel 
requirements  as  with  wrong  interpretations  which  have 
been  put  upon  Christianity.  But  deducting  whatever 
incompatibilities  may  be  traced  to  this  source,  there  are 
enough  still  left,  to  leave  quite  a  formidable  problem. 
While,  for  example,  He  whom  we  call  Master,  promises 
His  disciples  that  whatsoever  they  ask  in  His  name  shall 
be  given  to  them, — physical  science  declares  that  every 
law  of  nature  is  absolutely  unchangeable,  and  moves 
not  to  the  most  fervent  prayer.  While  the  New 
Testament  bids  us  give  to  him  that  asketh  and  sell 
that  which  we  have  and  give  alms,  our  social  science 
declares   that   alms-giving   is    preeminently    noxious, 


CHRISTIAN  DISCIPLESHIP  AND  MODERN  LIFE    167 

encouraging  idleness  and  profligacy,  and  helping  to 
saddle  society  with  a  brood  of  permanent  parasitic 
mendicants.     While  the  gospel  bids  us  resist  not  evil, 
and  to  him  that  smites  thee  on  the  one  cheek,  turn 
the  other  also,  the  whole  of  our  military,  police  and 
legal  systems  is  a  tacit  repudiation  of  these  precepts, 
and  our  political  experience  asserts  that  the  order  of 
our  great  civilized  communities  could  not  be  main- 
tained    without   repression    of  violence   wherever    it 
shows  its  unruly  head.     In  short,  many  of  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  New  Testament  are  (to  the  common  sense 
of  the  nineteenth    century)  incredible  and  impracti- 
cable paradoxes.     Let  a  Christian  disciple,  nowadays 
try  to  act  them  out  literally  and  simply.     Let  him  for 
example  essay  to  cast  a  mountain  into  the  sea,  simply 
by  faith  ;  let  the  missionary  take  no  money  in  his  purse 
nor  shoes  for  his  feet,  when  he  starts  on  a  journey, 
as   the   seventy  were   commanded   by  Christ  to  do; 
let  the  Christian  literally  pluck  out  the  eye  or  cut  off 
the  right  hand  that  is  concerned  in  any  sin  of  his ; 
let  him,  when  a  member  of  his  family  is  sick  unto 
death,  instead  of  calling  in  the  doctor  call  in  the  church 
elder  to  pray  over  him  and  anoint  his  head  with  oil, 
as  the  Apostle  James   commands ;  and   the  doctors 
would   be  pretty  likely  to  send  him  to  the  insane 
asylum. 

Now,  here  are  these  unavoidable  antagonisms  be- 
tween Christian  duty,  as  the  letter  of  Scripture  gives 
it  to  us,  and  the  usages  and  requirements  of  modern 
life.  These  antagonisms  are  becoming  evident  to 
great  numbers,  both  among  the  strict  disciples  of 
Christ  and   among   the   ardent   devotees  of   modern 


168      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

progress.  On  the  one  hand,  many  earnest  Chris- 
tians are  eager  to  bring  the  Christian  world  back 
to  a  literal  acceptance  and  imitation  of  the  gospel 
teachings,  as  the  only  cure  for  our  troubles,  and  would 
turn  their  backs  on  modern  society,  as  only  Paganism, 
because  of  its  variation  from  the  pattern  of  ancient 
Palestinian  Hfe.  A  conspicuous  instance  of  this  is 
found  in  the  recent  writings  of  Count  Tolstoi,  the 
famous  Russian  author.  Till  middle  life,  an  absolute 
skeptic  and  man  of  the  world  and  bold  assailant  of 
authority,  he,  then,  he  said,  made  a  great  discovery. 
It  was  that  the  precepts  of  Jesus,  especially  such  as 
"Resist  not  evil";  "Judge  not "  and  "  swear  not  at 
all"  are  to  be  taken  with  absolute  literalness.  This 
has  now  become  "  his  religion "  which  he  is  enthu- 
siastic in  urging  upon  the  world.  Till  we  give  up 
courts  and  law  proceedings,  armies,  police  and  resist- 
ance to  oppression,  we  are  not,  he  claims,  true  Chris- 
tians. On  the  other  hand,  there  is  the  large  and  fast 
growing  class  of  thoroughgoing  rationalists  and 
worshippers  of  science,  to  whom  natural  selection  and 
evolution  are  the  supreme  words,  and  whose  saints  are 
Haeckel  and  Biichner,  Comte  and  Bradlaugh  and  Inger- 
soll,  who  are  more  and  more  renouncing  Christianity, 
because  it  is,  they  believe,  irreconcilable  with  modern 
ideas  and  the  laws  of  nature,  discovered  by  physical 
science.  Both  these  parties,  from  opposite  quarters  are 
pushing  the  mind  of  our  generation  more  directly  face 
to  face  with  the  question,  "  Which  shall  be  given  up, — 
Christian  discipleship  or  modern  thought  and  life  ?  " 

Which,  then,  of  these  two  antagonistic  inmates  shall 
be  turned  out  of  our  heart  and  mind  ? 


CHRISTIAN  DISCIPLESEIP  AND  MODERN  LIFE    169 

Now,  those  who  maintain  the  necessity  of  in- 
terpreting and  following  the  gospel  literally — if  at 
all, — I  leave  to  themselves  to  take  whichever  horn 
of  the  dilemma  they  choose.  I  leave  it  to  them  to 
choose  between  the  literal  gospel  and  their  daily 
practice ;  between  the  punctilious  copying  of  every 
act  and  the  scrupulous  observance  of  every  word  of 
Christ,  on  the  one  side  and  the  whole  network  of 
modern  institutions  and  the  affirmations  of  modern 
thought  and  experience  on  the  other.  For  myself,  I 
would  take  a  more  excellent  way.  For  I  cannot 
spare, — modern  life  cannot  spare  either  the  gospel 
of  Christ  or  the  knowledge  and  civihzation  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Nor  are  the  two  when  rightly  interpreted,  incon- 
sistent. Both  should  be  kept ;  both  may  be  harmon- 
ized through  that  higher  interpretation  which  is  the 
reasonable  interpretation  of  Christianity. 

The  solution  lies  just  here.  The  Christian  Hfe  is 
not  bound  up  with  the  letter  of  any  book.  The  Chris- 
tian life  is  no  slavish  imitation  of  any  Hfe.  To  live 
the  hfe  of  Christ  is  not  to  live  as  He  did,  but  as  He 
would  Hve  to-day.  The  gospel  is  not  a  code  of  con- 
duct out  of  which  we  are  to  pick  out  texts,  here  and 
there  to  go  by ;  but  it  is  a  well-spring  of  spiritual  in- 
fluence with  which  we  are  first  thoroughly  to  fill  our- 
selves, and  then,  let  our  conduct  flow  freely  therefrom. 

In  the  first  place  our  duty  as  Christians  is  not  to 
follow  the  letter  of  the  gospel,  but  the  spirit.  "  The 
letter  killeth,  the  spirit  giveth  life,"  is  the  profound 
admonition  of  Paul.  He  who  follows  the  mere  letter 
of  the  gospel  may  violate  many  of  the  most  sacred 


170      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

obligations  of  virtue.     He  may  hold  slaves  and  quote 
to  us  in  justification  Paul's  letter  to  Philemon.     He 
may  practice  polygamy  and  justify  it  by  the  practice 
of  the  patriarchs  and  the  omission  of  any  prohibition 
of  it  in  the  New  Testament.     Or  he  may  (as  a  clergy- 
man in  England  it  is  said,  once  advised  a  parishioner 
who  inquired  of  him)  look  on  bribery  as  no  sin  be- 
cause nowhere  expressly  forbidden  in  the  Bible.     Of 
the  letter  of  the  New  Testament  we  can  never  be  as 
sure  as  of  its  spirit.     We  must  remember  that  the 
gospels  were  not  composed  till  forty  to  one  hundred 
years   after   the   events   and    discourses  which   they 
relate.     We  must  remember  that  what  was  originally 
said   has   been  twice  translated; — first  from  Hebrew 
into  Greek,  and  then  from  Greek  into  English.    Espe-> 
cially  we  must  remember  that  Jesus  was  an  Oriental 
and  a  popular  teacher.     There  is  more  in  these  two 
facts  than  we  are  apt  to  allow  for.     The  Asiatic  style 
of  narration  is  so  different  in  its  tone  from  the  Euro- 
pean, especially  so  different  from  our  prosaic  Anglo- 
Saxon  that  we  are  almost  supe  to  be  misled.     What 
we  would  express  abstractly,  the  Oriental  loves  to  put 
concretely.     What   we   would    say   in    cautious    and 
measured    terms,   the   Eastern    tongue   adorns    with 
luxuriant  garlands  of  imagery  and  hyperbole.      Atha- 
naseCoquerel,the  eminent  French  preacher,  has  given 
a  couple  of  good  illustrations  of  this.     "  When  I  was 
in  the  East  I  visited  a  sheik's  house.    He  told  me  that 
every  thing  in  that  house,  his  own  person  and  his  own 
family  as  well  as  his  possessions  were  mine ; — and  he 
said  this  with  the  greatest  protestations.     This  is  ex- 
actly as  if  we  should  say  to  a  stranger,  '  You  are 


CHRISTIAN  DISCIPLESHIP  AND  3I0DEEN  LIFE    171 

welcome ' — it  means  no  more.  If  I  had  understood 
it  to  mean  any  more  and  on  going  away  had  taken 
anything  with  me,  the  sheik  would  have  shot  me  as  a 
thief." 

"  I  remember,"  also  says  Coquerel,  "  having  seen 
two  letters, — one  written  by  a  French  General,  the 
other  by  Abd-El-Kadir,  the  Arab  chief  who  fought 
the  French  in  Algeria.  It  had  been  decided  that  the 
French  general  and  the  Arab  chief  should  say  exactly 
the  same  thing  in  regard  to  some  exchange  of  prison- 
ers. The  French  general  wrote  two  lines; — very 
clear,  very  precise,  with  nothing  but  the  exact  mean- 
ing he  intended  to  convey.  But  Abd-El-Kadir,  mean- 
ing to  write  the  same  thing,  wrote  a  whole  page  about 
flowers,  jewels,  roses,  moonshine  and  what  not." 

Now  this  difference  between  the  poetic  genius  of 
Oriental  expression  and  the  precision  which  the  Euro- 
pean mind  expects,  must  not  be  overlooked,  and  it 
necessitates  a  certain  reduction  in  interpreting  many 
of  the  strong  declarations  of  the  New  Testament. 

Again,  as  I  hinted,  we  must  remember  that  Jesus 
was  a  speaker  to  the  multitude.  We  must  disabuse 
our  minds  of  that  old  idea  that  Jesus  spoke  primarily 
to  report  from  heaven  to  earth  a  body  of  Divinity  and 
a  perfect  moral  code,  exact  and  exhaustive,  every 
syllable  weighed  and  measured  so  as  to  be  a  standard 
authority  and  sacred  oracle  for  all  future  generations. 
We  must  think  of  him  rather  as  aiming  to  fix  the  at- 
tention of  the  lounging  crowd,  gathered  at  some  street 
corner  or  public  square  in  Jerusalem ;  or  to  rouse 
from  their  sluggishness  the  minds  of  the  rustics  who 
have  come  out  on  to  some  hilltop  or  by  the  lake-side 


172      THE  NEW  WOULD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

to  take  a  look  at  the  new  preacher.  If  he  had  spoken 
in  the  cautious,  moderate  and  quahfied  style  of  a 
theological  professor,  he  would  never  have  caught 
their  attention.  Jesus  was  obliged,  from  the  nature 
of  the  case,  to  resort  to  striking  apothegms, — nay  to 
what  literally  would  be  paradoxes,  that  he  might  lodge 
something  in  their  minds  that  would  quicken  them 
and  set  them  to  thinking.  Doubtless,  too,  he  was 
aware  of  and  made  allowance  for  that  curious  hold- 
back in  human  nature,  that  unwillingness  that  the 
average  man  feels,  to  do  in  any  matter  exactly  what 
another  man  counsels  him  to  do.  Tell  a  boy  to  do 
one  particular  thing  and  how  willing  you  find  him  to 
do  anything  else  but  that ;  and  if  at  last,  he  yields  and 
does  do  the  thing  he  has  been  ordered  to, — how  apt 
he  is  to  do  it  in  some  way  just  a  little  different  from 
the  way  he  has  been  commanded  to  do  it.  He  seems 
to  think  that  by  so  varying  from  the  order  given  him, 
he  in  some  way  saves  his  own  independence.  And 
men  are  only  boys  of  bigger  growth  and  show  the 
same  trait  by  always  trying  to  beat  down  their  market 
man  or  get  ten  per  cent,  off  the  price  of  their  coal  or 
their  potatoes.  There  is  this  eternal  tendency  in 
human  nature  to  do  a  little  less  than  it  is  wanted  to, 
so  that  if  you  want  to  get  the  world  a  rod  ahead,  you 
must  command  it  to  go  a  furlong.  John  Stuart  Mill 
in  his  autobiography,  speaking  of  one  of  his  pamph- 
lets, "  England  and  Ireland,"  says, — "  It  is  the  char- 
acter of  the  British  people,  or  at  least  of  the  higher 
and  middle  classes  who  pass  muster  for  the  British 
people,  that  to  induce  them  to  approve  of  any  change, 
it  is  necessary  that  they  should  look  upon  it  as   a 


CHRISTIAN  DISCIPLESHIP  AND  MODERN  LIFE    173 

middle  course.  They  think  any  proposal  extreme 
and  violent,  unless  they  hear  of  some  other  proposal 
going  still  further,  upon  which  their  antipathy  to  ex- 
treme views  may  discharge  itself.  So  it  proved  in  the 
present  instance.  My  proposal  was  condemned.  But 
any  scheme  for  Irish  land  reform,  short  of  mine,  came 
to  be  thought  moderate  by  comparison.'  It  was  on 
this  principle,  also,  so  I  have  heard  Wendell  Phillips 
say,  that  he  and  the  early  Abolitionists  urged  the 
people  of  the  North  to  dissolve  the  Union  so  as  to  get 
rid  of  the  responsibility  for  slavery.  They  persuaded 
hardly  any  one  to  go  that  length  with  them.  They 
did  not  expect  to.  But  by  urging  that  extreme,  they 
brought  people  up  to  saying,  "  We  cannot  consent  to 
give  up  the  constitution  and  the  Union ;  but  anything 
short  of  that : — free  territories,  personal  liberty  bills  ; 
colored  schools, — in  anything  of  this  sort  we  will 
support  you.  And  the  very  people  gladly  promised 
this,  who,  if  we  had  asked  only  for  these  lesser  things 
would  have  been  just  as  unwilling  to  yield  them." 

Now  Jesus,  I  believe,  understood  this  trait  of  human 
nature,  and  made  it  serve  him ;  and  it  is  the  explana- 
tion of  many  of  the  apparent  paradoxes  of  the  gospel. 
If  he  had  simply  bidden  men,  when  struck  on  the 
cheek,  bear  it  with  patience,  he  would  have  made 
very  slight  impression  on  their  minds  and  his  admoni- 
tion would  have  accomplished  little  or  nothing.  But  by 
bidding  them  "  turn  the  other  cheek,  also," — he  arrests 
men's  thoughts  and  gets  them  half-way  to  the  goal  he 
has  bidden  them  to  go ;  to  the  point,  that  is,  of  recog- 
nizing it  as  a  duty  to  bear  injuries  patiently,  which 
was  probably  in  fact  all  that  Jesus  desired.     So  with 


174      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

the  precept  enjoining  the  disciple  to  go  "  two  miles  with 
him  that  ask  thee  to  go  one ; "  to  "  give  up  thy  coat,  also, 
to  him  that  takes  thy  cloak ;  " — if  we  follow  these  pre- 
cepts to  the  extent  that  common  sense  and  a  just  regard 
for  our  other  duties  limits  them,  we  may  feel  that  we  are 
following  them  as  far  as  Jesus  expected  us  to.  Every 
other  excellence  seems  to  be  ascribed  to  Jesus  except 
this  attribute  of  common  sense.  But  he  who  was  the 
perfection  of  manhood,  surely  was  not  lacking  in  the 
one  thing  most  essential  to  wisdom  and  balance  of 
character.  And  as  he  had  common  sense  himself, 
he  expected  to  find  it  in  those  to  whom  he  spoke. 

Again,  we  must  distinguish  between  the  circum- 
stances of  the  age  and  country  in  which  Christ  lived 
and  our  own.  He  spoke, — in  the  form  of  his  instruc- 
tion,— for  his  own  time.  Were  he  teaching  now 
among  us,  the  form,  the  details  of  his  instruction 
would  doubtless  be  different.  For  example,  among  a 
simple  rustic  community,  like  that  of  Palestine,  there 
was  not  the  same  danger  of  breeding  a  pauper  class 
by  the  custom  of  alms-giving,*  as  with  us.  It  was  the 
natural  way  of  relieving  honest  distress.  So  wealth 
was  less  often  won  without  fraud  or  extortion,  in 
those  days.  It  spoke  generally  of  injustice  and  op- 
pression. It  did  not  play,  in  the  economy  of  Christ's 
people,  that  useful  place  in  the  development  and  im- 
provement of  society  that  it  does  in  modern  life. 
The  social  science  of  Palestine  would  hardly  be  the 
same  as  that  which  England  and  America  call  for,  to- 
day. The  practical  methods  that  may  have  been  wise 
in  Gahlee,  i, 800  years  ago,  may  not  be  so  at  all  in 
modern    Christendom.     We   must  not  confound  the 


CHRISTIAN  DISCIPLESHIP  AND  MODERN  LIFE    175 

realm  of  the  spiritual  with  the  realm  of  the  material. 
Christianity  has  no  particular  system  of  political 
economy.  Christianity  has  no  special  system  of 
transacting  business.  Christianity  has  no  unchange- 
able specifications  of  dogma  or  conduct,  the  line  of 
which  it  always  requires  its  disciples  to  toe.  It  is  not 
a  set  of  rules  and  precepts,  but  of  principles.  It  is  a 
grand  stream  of  vital  spirit,  flowing  from  the  heart  of 
Christ,  down  through  the  centuries,  infusing  all  insti- 
tutions and  customs,  while  it  expands  itself  to  the 
breadth  of  the  advancing  age.  Christianity  is,  indeed, 
a  religion  of  every-day  life  ;  a  religion  of  business ;  a 
religion  that  embodies  itself  in  social  activities.  But 
it  has  nowhere  any  special  institutions,  any  special 
forms ;  any  special  acts  or  instrumentalities  that  it  in- 
sists upon.  What  it  insists  on  is  the  feeUng,  the  mo- 
tive that  is  carried  into  all.  That  must  always  be 
high  and  pure.  Every  sentiment  of  the  Christian 
must  be  noble.  Every  purpose  must  be  unselfish. 
Every  beat  of  his  heart  must  remember  his  neighbor's 
good.  Every  thought  must  be  touched  with  a  rever- 
ence for  the  Divine.  Let  the  intellect  seek  what  path 
it  thinks  best.  Only  let  the  generous  heart  be  the 
driver.  Let  common  sense  conduct  the  affairs  of  so- 
ciety and  the  state  as  she  deems  wisest.  Only  let  love 
to  God  and  man  be  the  end.  Of  every  special  deed, 
true  Christianity  says,  as  Paul  said  of  the  eating  of 
meat, — "  Let  him  that  eateth,  eat  unto  the  Lord,  and 
him  that  eateth  not,  likewise  unto  the  Lord.  To  his 
own  Master,  he  standeth  or  falleth."  Christ  is  indeed, 
the  pattern  which  our  religious  aspirations  should  set 
before  them.     But  we  cannot  repeat  all   the   actual 


176      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

deeds  or  ideas  of  Christ  to  advantage  in  this  nineteenth 
century,  any  more  than  we  can  wisely  wear  in  our  north- 
ern cHmes,  the  loose,  thin  robes  that  Jesus  wore ;  or  use 
sandals  on  our  feet,  instead  of  shoes  ;  or  talk  Aramaic, 
as  Christ  did ;  or  image  in  our  own  faces,  the  personal 
likeness  that  belonged  to  him.  What  we  are  to  seek  is 
that  which  Paul  exhorted  the  Philippians  to  attain  to ; 
"  the  mind  which  was  in  Christ  Jesus  " ;  that  spirit, 
temper,  enduring  and  inspiring  character — that  life,  in 
fine,  "  which  shone  "  as  Mr.  W.  R.  Greg  has  well  said, 
"  through  all  his  actions  and  permeated  all  his  sayings, 
and  which  was  so  vital,  so  essential,  so  omnipresent  and 
so  unmistakable,  as  to  have  survived  through  all  the 
channels  and  processes  of  transmission, — this  mind  of 
Christ  can  alone  be  safely  followed  as  his  real  teach- 
ing. Doubts  and  disputes  among  Christians  have 
been  endless  as  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ ;  as  to  the  par- 
ticulars of  what  he  said  and  did.  None,  we  believe, 
ever  truly  differed  as  to  the  tone  and  temper  of  his 
mind  or  of  his  teaching."  We  may  doubt  the 
wisdom  and  the  obligation  -still  to  obey  some  of 
Christ's  verbal  commands.  We  may  declare  that 
he  who  gives  to  every  one  that  asks  of  him,  will 
be  likely  only  to  minister  to  sloth  and  sensuality ; 
that  he  who  turns  the  other  cheek,  also,  to  the  fist 
that  has  already  smitten  him  on  one  cheek,  only  en- 
courages the  riot  of  violence  and  force.  But  we  can- 
not dispute  that  the  spirit  that  these  precepts  incul- 
cate is  the  right  spirit ;  that  this  mood  of  universal, 
all-forbearing  love  is  the  only  mood  that  can  bring 
the  fallen  soul  to  its  better  self ;  is  the  only  mood  in 
which  even  stern  correction  should  be  inflicted. 


CHRISTIAN  DISCIPLESHIP  AND  MODERN  LIFE    177 

To  have  "  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus  "  is  the 
true  Christian  Hfe.  And  that  Hfe  is  always  feasible. 
We  cannot  conceive  any  single  form  or  manifestation 
of  it  that  may  not  thrive  in  fullest  vitality  in  society 
as  now  constituted,  and  find  ample  work  in  purging  it 
of  its  evils  and  developing  its  capabilities,  without 
seeking  to  overturn  its  foundations.  "  The  shell  of 
verbal  form,"  Mr.  Greg  has  truly  said,  "  in  which 
Christ's  thoughts  have  come  down  to  us,  may  pass 
from  the  belief  of  man  and  from  harmony  with  so- 
ciety. The  world  has  outgrown  some ;  it  will,  doubt- 
less, outgrow  more.  But  the  kernel, — the  spirit, — 
belongs  to  all  time."  To  follow  this  spirit  is,  of  course, 
a  work  beset  with  difficulties, — as  all  things  worth 
getting  are.  And  some  of  these  difficulties,  come,  it 
is  true,  from  the  very  spirit  of  our  age.  To  lead  a 
life  that  shall  make  our  fellow-men  better  is  not  the 
simple  thing  it  was  of  old.  It  is  beset  with  many 
perplexities.  Our  civiHzation  is  so  complex  that  it  is 
a  difficult  thing  to  follow  out  the  windings  of  an  act 
to  its  real  consequences  in  society.  It  is  a  difficult 
thing  to  balance  the  two  sides  that  we  have  learned  to 
see  that  there  are  to  almost  every  question.  The 
Christian  disciple  nowadays  needs  the  wisdom  of  the 
serpent,  or  in  spite  of  himself,  he  will  fail  to  be 
"  harmless  as  the  dove."  But  if  there  are  these  hin- 
drances to  Christian  living,  in  modern  society, — on 
the  other  hand  what  great  helps  are  there !  There 
has  never  been  a  time,  I  believe,  more  full  of  the 
Christian  spirit.  Never  a  time  when  men  sought 
more  generally  and  more  patiently  how  they  might 
improve  the  condition  of  society.     Never  a  time  when 


178      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

there  was  a  more  earnest  desire  to  get  at  the  real,  at 
the  substantial,  the  actually  helpful, — pushing  one  side 
old  worn  out  forms,  perhaps  with  a  little  rudeness,  but 
with  diligence  and  intelligence  advancing  towards  that 
which  is  truly  useful  to  the  race.  Look  around  at  our 
public  institutions,  our  hospitals,  asylums.  Social 
Science  Associations,  Reform  Schools,  Fresh  Air 
Funds  and  Outings,  Free  Kindergartens,  Lend-a-Hand 
Societies,  People's  Palaces,  College  Settlements,  Peace 
Conferences,  Working  People's  Clubs,  and  what  grand 
strides  have  been  made  within  the  last  century  towards 
the  better  realization  of  the  coming  of  Christ's  king- 
dom of  love  and  peace  on  earth.  But  still — how  far, 
alas !  are  we  yet,  from  the  glorious  consummation. 
God  knows  how  much  we  fall  short  of  it.  But  the 
fault,  I  believe,  lies  not  in  the  age ;  nor  in  our  institu- 
tions, nor  yet  in  the  gospel  itself.  It  lies  in  ourselves  ; 
in  the  pressure  of  the  senses  upon  the  spirit;  the 
rivalry  of  the  flesh  with  the  soul ;  the  weariness  of 
the  body  and  the  weakness  of  the  will.  Let  us  seek 
to  get  more  of  the  mind  which  was  in  Christ ;  that 
absolute  devotion  to  our  fellow-men  and  to  God.  Let 
us  not  squander  our  forces,  endeavoring  to  overtur,n 
society.  Let  us  trust  that  the  experience  and  struggle 
for  existence  of  humanity  in  these  many  thousand 
years  that  we  have  been  on  the  earth,  have  settled 
some  of  the  simpler  conditions  of  social  life.  Let  the 
sword  go  unmelted ;  but  let  it  strike  only  for  right 
and  justice.  Despise  not  the  power  of  riches ;  but  let 
them  be  used  for  the  blessing  of  society.  Let  the 
distinctions  of  property  and  class  remain.  But  let 
them  be  consecrated  to  the  discharge  of  their  respect- 


CHRISTIAN  DISCIPLESEIP  AND  3I0DERN  LIFE    179 

ive  duties,  and  to  the  better  fulfilment  of  what  mutual 
love  and  helpfulness  demands.  It  is  a  fascinating 
vision, — the  vision  of  the  days  of  primitive  Christian- 
ity renewed  amongst  us  ;  the  very  life  of  Jesus  in 
Nazareth  and  Jerusalem,  led  again  here,  just  as  he 
passed  it  there.  But  that  time  is  gone  by  forever. 
Yet  that  which  is  left  to  us ;  the  realizing  of  his  mind 
in  every  one  of  our  lives, — taking  on  the  new  forms 
which  our  larger  opportunities  and  larger  experience 
justify,  how  much  nobler  a  picture  would  that  make  ! 
Would  it  not,  indeed,  be  the  realization  of  those 
greater  miracles  which  Christ  himself  foretold  that 
his  disciples  should  work  when  his  own  task  on  earth 
was  ended? 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MODERN  DOGMATISM  AND  THE  UNBELIEF  OF  THE  AGE. 

An  eminent  ecclesiastic  of  the  Church  of  England 
once  characterized  the  present  age  as  preeminently 
the  age  of  doubt,  and  lamented  that  whether  he  took 
up  book  or  magazine  or  sermon,  he  was  confronted  by- 
some  form  of  it. 

This  picture  of  our  age  is  not  an  unjust  one.  The 
modern  mind  is  thoroughly  wide-awake  and  has  quite 
thrown  off  the  leading  strings  of  ancient  timidity.  All 
the  traditions  of  history,  the  laws  of  science,  the 
principles  of  morals  are  overhauled  and  the  founda- 
tions on  which  they  rest  relentlessly  probed.  And 
our  modern  curiosity  can  see  no  reason  why  it  should 
cease  its  investigations  when  it  comes  to  the  frontiers 
of  religion.  It  deems  no  dogma  too  old  to  be  sum- 
moned before  its  bar;  no  council  nor  conclave  too 
sacred  to  be  asked  for  its  credentials ;  no  pope  or 
scripture  too  venerable  to  be  put  in  the  witness-box 
and  cross-examined  as  to  its  accuracy  or  authority. 
In  all  the  churches  there  is  a  spirit  of  inquiry  abroad, 
— nay,  almost  every  morning  breeze  brings  us  some 
new  report  of  heresy,  or  the  baying  of  the  sleuth- 
hounds,  as  they  scent  some  new  trail  of  heterodoxy ; 
and  the  slogan  of  dogmatic  controversy  echoes  from 
shore  to  shore. 

To  the  greater  part  of  the  church  this  epidemic  of 
180 


MODERN  D0G3IATIS3I  181 

scepticism  is  a  subject  of  grave  alarm.  Unbelief 
seems  to  them,  as  to  Mr.  Moody,  the  worst  of  sins ; 
and  they  consider  the  only  proper  thing  to  do  with  it, 
is  to  follow  the  advice  which  the  Bishop  of  London 
gave  some  years  ago, — and  fling  doubt  away  as  you 
would  a  loaded  shell.  They  apparently  look  upon 
Christianity  as  a  huge  powder  magazine,  which  is 
likely  to  explode  if  a  spark  of  candid  inquiry  comes 
near  it. 

Others  on  the  contrary,  fold  their  arms  indifferently 
and  regard  this  new  spirit  of  investigation  as  only  an 
evanescent  breeze,  which  can  produce  no  serious 
result  upon  the  citadel  of  faith.  A  third  party  hails  it 
with  exultation  as  the  first  trumpet  blast  of  the  theo- 
logical Gotterdamerung, — the  downfall  of  all  divine 
powers  and  the  destruction  of  the  Christian  superstition 
to  give  place  to  the  naked  facts  of  scientific  material- 
ism. 

What  estimate  then,  shall  we  put  on  this  tendency  ? 

In  the  first  place  we  must  recognize  that  it  is  a 
serious  condition ;  that  it  is  no  momentary  eddy,  but 
a  permanent  turn  in  the  current  of  the  human  mind. 
Humanity  is  looking  religion  square  in  the  face, 
without  any  bandage  over  the  eyes,  in  a  way  it  never 
has  confronted  it  before;  and  when  humanity  once 
gets  its  eyes  open  to  such  questions, — it  is  in  vain  to 
try  and  close  them,  before  it  has  thoroughly  examined 
the  subjects  at  issue.  Certainly,  Protestantism  cannot 
call  a  halt  upon  this  march.  For  it  was  Protestantism 
itself,  proclaiming  at  the  beginning  of  her  struggle 
with  Rome,  the  right  of  private  judgment,  which 
started  the  modern  mind  upon  this  high  quest ;  and 


182      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

Protestantism  is  therefore  bound,  in  logic  and  honor, 
to  see  it  through  to  the  end,  whatever  that  end  may 
be. 

And  in  the  next  place  I  believe  that  quest  vi^ill  end 
in  good.  Why  the  champions  of  faith  should  regard 
doubt  as  devil-born,  rather  than  a  providential  instru- 
ment in  God's  hand,  is  something  I  do  not  understand. 
If  doubt  humbles  the  church  and  acts  as  a  thorn  in 
its  flesh,  may  not  such  chastening  be  providential, 
quite  as  much  as  the  things  which  puff  it  up.  As 
Luther  well  expressed  it : — "  We  say  to  our  Lord — 
that  if  He  will  have  His  church.  He  must  keep  it.  For 
we  cannot.  And  if  we  could,  we  should  be  the 
proudest  asses  under  heaven."  As  Attila  was  the 
scourge  of  God  to  the  Roman  world,  when  God 
needed  to  clear  that  empire  out  of  the  way,  as  He 
built  His  new  Christendom, — so  may  not  doubt  be  the 
scourge  of  God  to  this  easy-going,  sleepy,  too  credu- 
lous piety  of  to-day  which  swallows  all  the  husks  of 
faith  so  fast  that  it  never  gets  a  taste  of  the  kernel  ? 

Yes,  doubt  is  often  the*  needed  preparation  for 
obtaining  truth.  We  must  clear  out  the  thorny 
thicket  of  superstition  before  we  can  begin  to  raise 
the  sweet  fruit  of  true  religion.  There  are  times  when 
careful  investigation  is  rightly  called  for.  When 
doubting  Thomas  demanded  to  see  the  point  of  the 
nails  and  to  touch  and  handle  the  flesh  of  the  risen 
Christ,  before  he  would  believe  in  the  resurrection  of 
his  Lord,  his  demand  for  the  most  solid  proof  of  the 
great  marvel  was  a  wise  and  commendable  one, — one 
for  which  all  subsequent  generations  of  Christians  are 
deeply  indebted  to  him.     To  believe  without  evidence, 


MODERN  D0GMATIS3I  183 

or  to  suppress  doubt  where  it  legitimately  arises,  is 
both  fostering  superstition  and  exposing  ourselves  to 
error  and  danger.  What  shall  we  say  of  the  merchant 
who  refuses  to  entertain  any  question  about  the  sea- 
worthiness of  his  vessel,  but  sends  her  off  across  the 
Atlantic,  undocked  and  unexamined,  piously  trusting 
her  to  the  Lord  ?  Shall  we  commend  him  ?  or  not 
rather  charge  him  with  culpable  negligence  ?  And 
what  we  say  of  such  a  merchant,  seems  to  me  just 
what  we  should  say  of  the  Christian  who  refuses  to 
investigate  the  seaworthiness  of  that  ship  of  faith 
which  his  ancestors  have  left  him.  In  astronomy,  in 
politics,  in  law,  we  demand  what  business  the  dead 
hand  of  the  past  has  on  our  lip,  our  brain,  our  purse  ? 
Why  should  the  dead  hand  of  Anselm,  Augustine  or 
Calvin  be  exempt  from  giving  its  authority?  Why 
should  their  mediaeval  glimpses  of  truth  be  given  the 
right  to  close  our  eyes  to-day  from  seeing  what  we 
ourselves  can  see  and  seal  our  lips  from  speaking  forth 
what  we  can  hear  of  heavenly  truth  ? 

In  all  other  departments  of  knowledge,  investigation 
has  brought  us  to  a  higher  outlook,  where  we  see 
the  true  relations  of  things  better  than  before.  In  all 
other  branches,  God  has  given  us  new  light,  so  that 
we  discern  things  more  as  they  really  are.  Science 
has  risen,  by  making  a  ladder  of  its  earlier  errors  and 
by  treading  them  under  foot,  has  reached  to  higher 
truths.  The  Bible  itself  is  the  growth  of  ages ;  and 
Christian  doctrine  and  Christian  creeds  have  been  the 
evolution  of  a  still  longer  period.  The  dogmas  of  the 
churches  are  most  manifold  and  conflicting.  Is  it  not 
rather  immodest  and  absurd  for  each  church  to  claim 


184      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

infallibility  for  its  present  creed  and  that  wisdom  died 
when  the  book  of  Revelation  closed  the  Bible,  or  the 
Council  of  Trent  or  the  Westminster  Assembly 
adjourned  its  sitting  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  the 
churches  ought,  instead,  to  be  willing  and  anxious  to 
receive  whatever  new  light  God  may  grant  them  to- 
day, and  with  the  potent  clarifying  processes  of 
reason,  separate  the  pure  gold  of  religion  from  the 
dross  and  alloys  of  olden  superstition  and  misguided 
judgment. 

But  to  the  modern  devotees  of  dogma  any  sub- 
jection of  it  to  the  cleansing  of  the  reason  seems 
shocking.  What,  e.g.^  was  the  forefront  of  the  offend- 
ing of  Robert  Ingersoll,  on  account  of  which  so  large 
a  part  of  the  religious  world  considered  him  an  infidel, 
sure  to  be  eternally  lost,  than  that  he  dared  to  test  the 
Bible  and  popular  creeds  by  reason  and  freely  vent 
his  matchless  wit,  irony  and  indignant  eloquence  on 
those  parts  and  interpretations  that  would  not  meet 
the  test.  Or  in  the  case  of  another  heretic  of  our  day 
— a  man  of  most  reverent  spirit*  and  thorough  scholar- 
ship— never  scoffing  at  sacred  things  as  Colonel 
Ingersoll  did — yet  on  whose  trail  the  heresy-hunters  long 
fiercely  followed — for  what  was  Dr.  Charles  A.  Briggs 
tried  and  suspended  from  the  ministry  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  And  when  for  the  sake  of  peace,  he  left 
that  denomination  and  sought  in  its  stead  the  fold  of 
Episcopacy,  for  what  was  he  still  pursued  with  much 
loud  sacerdotal  baying  and  barking?  Why  else  than 
that  he  frankly  admitted  errors  in  the  Bible  and  gave 
to  reason  (by  which  he  meant,  as  he  explained,  not 
merely  the  understanding  but  also  the  conscience  and 


MODERN  DOGMATISM  185 

religious  instinct  in  man)  a  conjoint  place  with  the 
Bible  and  the  Church  in  the  work  of  salvation  and  the 
attainment  of  divine  truth  ? 

To  the  modern  dogmatist,  these  positions  seem 
sceptical  and  pernicious.  But  to  the  philosopher,  who 
knows  the  laws  of  human  nature  and  to  every  scholar 
who  knows  the  actual  history  of  the  Bible,  these  posi- 
tions seem  only  self-evident.  That  in  the  scriptures 
there  are  innumerable  errors  in  science,  mistakes  in 
history,  prophecies  that  were  never  fulfilled,  contradic- 
tions and  inconsistencies  between  different  books  and 
chapters — these  are  facts  of  observation,  which  every 
Biblical  student  knows  full  well.  And  another  thing 
every  scholar  knows  equally  well — that  these  original 
autographs  of  the  sacred  writers, — for  whose  infalli- 
bility the  conservatives  contend, — are  things  that  no 
one  in  these  modern  days  has  ever  seen  or  can  ever 
know  what  they  are.  For  the  oldest  of  the  New 
Testament  Greek  manuscripts  is  200  years  later  than 
the  age  of  the  evangelists  and  the  oldest  Hebrew 
manuscript  of  the  Old  Testament  is  700  or  800  years 
older  than  the  date  of  composition  of  their  latest  part. 
Granting,  then,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  the 
Bible  was  given  originally  by  infallible  divine  dicta- 
tion, yet  the  men  who  wrote  down  the  message  were 
fallible ;  the  men  who  copied  it  were  fallible ;  the  men 
who  translated  it  (some  of  it  being  twice  translated, — 
first  from  Hebrew  to  Greek  and  then  from  Greek  to 
English)  were  fallible ;  and  the  editors  who  from  the 
scores  of  manuscripts,  by  their  personal  comparison 
and  decisions  between  the  conflicting  readings,  patched 
together  our  present  text,  were  most  faUible.     And 


186      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

when  thus  a  Bible  reader  has  got  his  text  before  him, 
how  can  he  understand  it  except  by  using  his  own 
reason  and  judgment, — instruments  again,  most  fallible. 

How  is  it  possible  then,  to  get  Bible-truth  in- 
dependently of  the  reason  or  in  entire  exemption 
from  error  ?  The  only  way  would  be  to  say  that  not 
only  was  the  original  manuscript  of  the  Bible  verbally 
inspired ;  but  all  its  authors,  copyists,  editors  and  pious 
readers  were  also  infallibly  inspired.  As,  in  the  old 
Hindu  account  of  how  the  world  was  supported,  the 
earth  was  said  to  be  held  up  on  pillars,  and  the  pillars  on 
an  elephant,  and  the  elephant  on  a  tortoise,  and  when  the 
defender  of  the  faith  was  asked — "  what  then  did  the  tor- 
toise rest  on  ?  "  he  sought  to  save  himself  in  his  quandary 
by  roundly  asserting  that  it  was  "  tortoise  all  the  way 
down " ;  so  the  defender  of  the  infallibility  of  the 
scripture  has  to  take  refuge  in  "  inspiration  all  the 
way  down."  But  if  this  be  so, — ought  not  the  mod- 
ern Biblical  editors  and  revisers,  translators  and  pro- 
fessors of  to-day  also  to  be  inspired,  as  much  as  those 
of  King  James'  day  or  the  pointers  at  the  Bible  House  ? 
and  thus  we  reach,  as  the  reductio  ad  absurdiim  of  this 
argument,  the  result  that  Tischendorf  and  Kuenen, 
Gregory  and  Dr.  Briggs,  Dr.  Preserved  Smith  and  Dr. 
McGiffert,  the  very  Hebrew  professors  and  higher  critics 
who  are  accused  of  heresy,  are  really  themselves  the 
channels  of  infallible  inspiration.  For  unless  these 
Biblical  scholars  of  the  present  day  are  inspired  and 
providentially  guided,  a  most  essential  link  in  the 
chain  of  inspiration  is  missing. 

The  sincere  investigators  into  the  character  of  the 
Bible  and  the  nature  of  Christ  are  charged  with  ex- 


MODERN  DOGMATISM  187 

alting  human  reason  above  the  word  of  God.  But  as 
soon  as  the  subject  is  investigated  and  a  Professor 
Swing  or  a  Dr.  McGiffert  corroborates  his  interpreta- 
tion by  the  scripture  itself,  or  Dr.  Briggs  and  Pro- 
fessor Smith  show  their  views  to  be  sustained  by- 
history,  by  philosophy,  by  a  profounder  study  of 
both  nature  and  the  Bible, — then,  the  ground  is 
shifted  and  it  is  maintained  that  it  is  not  a  question 
whether  the  views  are  true ;  but  whether  they  con- 
form to  the  creed ;  that  the  catechism  is  not  to  be 
judged  by  the  Bible  or  the  facts  in  the  case ;  but  Bible 
and  facts  are  to  be  interpreted  by  the  words  of  the 
confession  ;  and  if  they  do  not  agree  with  this, — then, 
heresy  and  infidelity  are  made  manifest.  The  ques- 
tion is  not  whether  the  water  of  truth  be  found ;  but 
whether  it  is  drunk  out  of  an  orthodox  bottle,  with  the 
Church's  label  glued  firmly  upon  it. 

But  let  us  stop  for  a  moment  and  ask  whence  came 
these  creeds  and  catechisms  themselves  ?  What  else 
was  their  origin  than  out  of  the  reason  of  man,  out  of 
the  brains  of  scholars,  (quite  as  fallible,  quite  as  par- 
tisan and  far  less  well-informed  than  our  scholars  to- 
day) as  these  older  scholars  in  former  years,  criticized 
and  interpreted  the  same  scripture  and  nature  and  laws 
of  God. 

Thus  it  is  the  dogmatists  themselves  who,  in  point 
of  fact,  exalt  the  reason  of  man  above  the  word  of  God, 
forbidding  us,  as  they  do,  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  God 
in  our  own  soul ;  forbidding  us  to  decipher  the  revela- 
tions which  the  Divine  Hand  has  written  on  the  rocks 
and  trees  and  animal  structures  of  his  own  Creation, 
and  even  frowning  upon  that  profounder  study  of  the 


188      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

scripture  called  the  higher  criticism  ;  and  bid  us  accept, 
in  its  stead,  the  man-made  substitute  of  some  council 
or  assembly  of  former  generations,  less  well-informed 
than  ourselves. 

There  have  undoubtedly  been  periods  when  the 
doubt  with  which  the  church  had  to  deal  was  mainly 
frivolous  or  sensual ;  a  passionate  rebellion  of  the 
carnal  nature,  attacking  the  essential  truths  of  religion. 
But  such  is  not  the  nature  of  the  doubt  that  is  at 
present  occupying  the  public  eye;  such  is  not  the 
doubt  most  characteristic  of  our  generation.  It  pro- 
ceeds from  serious  motives.  It  is  a  doubt  marked  by 
essential  reverence  and  loyalty  to  truth.  It  is  a  desire 
for  more  solid  foundations ;  for  the  attainment  of  the 
naked  realities  of  existence.  It  is  a  necessary  incident 
of  the  great  intellectual  awakening  of  our  century.  As 
the  modern  intellect  comes  back  on  Sunday  from  its 
week-day  explorations  of  the  history  of  Rome  or  the 
myths  of  Greece  or  the  religious  ideas  of  Buddha  or 
Zoroaster,  it  must  return  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
Christian  dogmas  under  the  influence  of  new  ideas. 
It  will  necessarily  demand  what  better  evidence  the 
law  of  Moses  or  the  creed  of  Athanasius  has  than  the  law 
of  Manu  or  the  text  of  the  Zendavesta.  The  scepti- 
cism of  our  age  is  not  so  much  directed  against  the 
great  truths  of  religion  as  against  the  man-made 
dogmas  that  have  usurped  the  sacred  seat. 

If  irreverent,  scoffing  scepticism  were  to  be  found 
anywhere  to-day,  it  would  most  likely  be  found  mani- 
fested among  the  throng  of  young  men  gathered  at 
our  most  progressive  universities.  But  eminent  men 
connected  with  orthodox  denominations  have  testified 


MODERN  D0G3IATISM  189 

that  if  these  students  are  sceptical,  it  is  because  they 
are  too  serious-minded  and  too  true,  to  accept  con- 
victions ready-made ;  to  take  traditional  creeds  instead 
of  personal  beliefs ;  or  church  formularies  in  place  of 
a  life  of  devotion. 

Now,  to  call  such  a  state  of  mind  irreligious  or 
infidel  is  most  unjust.  The  irreligion  lies  rather  with 
those  who  make  a  fetish  of  the  Bible  and  substitute  a 
few  pet  texts  from  it,  that  sustain  their  own  private 
opinions,  in  place  of  that  divine  light  that  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  The  real 
infidels  are  they  who  reject  the  revelation  which  God 
is  making  us  continually  in  the  widening  light  of 
modern  knowledge,  and  by  a  species  of  ecclesiastical 
lynching,  condemn  before  trial  the  sincere,  painstaking 
and  careful  scholars  and  reverent  disciples  of  Christ, 
who  are  so  earnestly  seeking  after  truth, — because  the 
results  of  their  learned  researches  do  not  agree  with 
the  prejudices  of  their  anathematizers.  It  is  with  no 
less  cogency  of  argument  than  nobility  of  feeling  that 
Dr.  Briggs  replied  to  his  assailants  :  "  If  it  be  heresy 
to  say  that  rationalists  like  Martineau  have  found  God 
in  the  reason,  and  Roman  Catholics  like  Newman, 
have  found  God  in  the  church, — I  rejoice  in  such 
heresy  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  I  have  less 
doubt  of  the  salvation  of  Martineau  and  Newman  than 
I  have  of  the  modern  Pharisees  who  would  exclude 
such  noble  men, — so  pure,  so  grand,  the  ornaments 
of  Great  Britain  and  the  prophets  of  the  age, — from 
the  kingdom  of  God." 

Scepticism  and  religious  questioning  are,  then,  no 
sins.     They  are  not  irreligious.     But  surely  they  do 


190      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

vex   the  church.     What  shall  the  church  do  about 
them. 

In  the  first  place  we  should  not  try  to  suppress 
them.  Nor  should  we  tell  religious  inquirers  to  shut 
their  eyes  and  put  the  poppy  pillow  of  faith  beneath 
their  heads  and  go  to  sleep  again  and  dream.  They 
have  got  their  eyes  wide  open  and  they  are  determined 
to  know  whether  those  sweet  visions  which  they  had 
on  faith's  pillow  are  any  more  than  illusions.  Nor 
will  they  be  satisfied  and  cease  to  think,  by  having  a 
creed  of  300  or  1,500  years  antiquity  recited  to  them. 
The  modern  intellects  that  have  taken  Homer  to 
pieces,  disinterred  Agamemnon's  tomb,  unwound  the 
mummy  wrappings  of  the  Pharaohs,  weighed  the  stars 
and  chained  the  lightnings  are  not  to  be  awed  by  any 
old-time  sheepskin  or  any  council  of  bishops.  They 
demand  the  facts  in  the  case ;  they  desire  fresh  manna 
to  satisfy  their  heart  hunger;  they  crave  the  solid 
realities  of  personal  experience.  It  is  too  late  to-day 
to  say  to  the  great  tide  of  modern  thought — "  Thus 
far  shalt  thou  go  and  no  further."  The  old  ramparts 
are  broken  through  and  we  must  give  the  flood  its 
course.  The  only  spirit  to  meet  it  in,  is  that  of  frank- 
ness and  friendliness.  Let  us  not  foster  in  these 
questioning  minds  the  suspicion  that  there  is  any  part 
of  religion  that  we  are  afraid  to  have  examined.  We 
smile  at  the  bigoted  Buddhist  who,  when  the  European 
attempted  to  prove  by  the  microscope  that  the  monk's 
scruples  against  eating  animal  food  were  futile  (inas- 
much as,  as  in  every  glass  of  water  which  he  drank,  he 
swallowed  millions  of  little  living  creatures)  smashed 
the  microscope  for  answer — just  as  if  that  altered  at 


MODERN  D0G3IA  TISM  191 

all  the  facts.  But  are  not  many  of  the  heresy-hunters 
in  Christendom  quite  as  foolish,  in  their  efforts  to  sup- 
press the  testimony  which  nature  and  reason  and 
scholarship  every  day  present  afresh  ? 

Let  us  therefore  give  liberty, — yes — even  sympathy 
to  these  perplexed  souls  who  are  struggling  with  the 
great  problems  of  religion. 

And  secondly,  let  us  be  honest  with  them  and  not 
claim  more  certainty  for  religious  doctrines  or  more 
precise  and  absolute  knowledge  about  divine  and 
heavenly  things  than  we  have.  One  of  the  great 
causes  of  modern  doubt  is  unquestionably  the  excessive 
claims  that  theology  has  made.  It  has  not  been  con- 
tent with  preaching  the  simple  truths  necessary  to  a 
good  life ;  that  we  have  a  Maker  to  whom  we  are  re- 
sponsible, a  Divine  Friend  to  help  us,  a  Divine  voice 
within  to  teach  us  right  and  wrong ;  that  in  the  life 
that  is  to  follow  this,  each  shall  be  judged  according 
to  his  deeds,  and  that  in  the  examples  of  the  Apostles 
and  prophets,  especially  in  the  spotless  life  of  Jesus, 
we  have  the  noble  patterns  of  the  holy  life  set  up 
before  us  for  our  imitation ;  a  revelation  of  moral  and 
religious  truth  all  sufficient  for  salvation.  The  church 
has  not  been  content  with  these,  almost  self-evident 
truths  ;  but  it  must  go  on,  to  make  most  absolute 
assertions  about  God's  foreknowledge  and  foreordina- 
tion  and  Triune  personality ;  and  the  eternal  punish- 
ment of  the  wicked,  and  the  double  nature  and  pre- 
existence  of  Christ,  things  not  only  vague  and  incon- 
sistent, but  contradictory  to  our  sense  of  justice  and 
right.  It  must  go  on  to  make  manifold  assertions 
about   the    inerrancy   and   verbal    inspiration    of  the 


192      TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

Bible  and  the  details  of  the  future  life  and  the  fall  of 
human  nature,  which  are  utterly  incredible  to  rational 
minds.  And  the  worst  of  it  is,  that  all  these  things 
are  bound  up  in  one  great  theological  system,  and 
poor,  anxious  inquirers  are  told  that  they  must  either 
take  all,  or  none ;  and  so  (soon  coming  face  to  face 
with  some  palpable  inconsistency  or  incredibility)  they 
not  unnaturally  give  up  the  whole.  Trace  out  the 
religious  history  of  the  great  sceptics,  the  Voltaires, 
the  Bradlaughs,  the  Ingersolls,  the  Tom  Paines,  and 
you  will  see  that  the  origin  of  their  scepticism  has 
almost  always  been  in  a  reaction  from  the  excessive 
assumptions  of  the  ecclesiastics  themselves.  It  is  too 
fine-spun  and  arrogant  orthodoxy  that  is  itself  respon- 
sible for  half  of  the  heterodoxy  of  which  it  complains. 
Let  the  church,  then,  be  candid  and  claim  no  more 
than  it  ought  to.  Let  it  respect  and  encourage 
honesty  in  every  man  in  these  sacred  matters.  The 
church  itself  should  say  to  the  inquirer :  you  are  un- 
faithful to  your  God,  if  you  go  not  where  He,  by  the 
candle  of  the  Lord, — i.  e.^  (the  reason  and  conscience 
He  has  placed  within  you)  leads  you.  And  when  a 
man  in  this  reverent  and  sincere  spirit,  pursues  the 
path  of  doubt,  how  often  does  he  find  it  circling 
around  again  towards  faith  and  conducting  him  to  the 
Mount  of  Zion.  The  true  remedy  for  scepticism  is 
deeper  investigation.  As  all  sincere  doubt  is  at  bot- 
tom a  cry  of  the  deeper  faith,  that  only  that  which  is 
true  and  righteous  is  Divine,  so  all  earnest  doubt, 
thought  through  to  the  end,  pierces  the  dark  cloud 
and  comes  out  in  the  light  and  joy  of  higher  con- 
victions.    It   lays    in  the   dust   our  philosophic  and 


MODERN  DOGMA  TISM  193 

materialistic  idols  and  brings  us  to  the  one  eternal 
Power,  the  everlasting  Spirit,  manifested  in  all ;  that 
Spirit  "  whose  name  is  truth,  whose  word  is  love." 

The  reader  may  perhaps  remember  the  story  of  the 
climber  among  the  Alps,  who  having  slipped  off  a 
precipice,  as  he  thought,  frantically  grasped,  as  he 
fell,  a  projecting  root  and  held  on  in  an  agony  of  an- 
ticipated death,  for  hours,  until,  utterly  exhausted,  he 
at  last  resigned  himself  to  destruction,  and  let  go  of 
his  support,  to  fall  gently  on  the  grassy  ledge  beneath, 
only  a  few  inches  below  his  feet.  So,  when  we  resign 
ourselves  to  God's  hand,  our  fall,  be  it  little  or  be  it 
great,  lands  us  gently  in  the  Everlasting  Arms  that 
are  ever  underneath. 

Do  not  fear,  then,  to  wrestle  with  doubt ;  or  to 
follow  its  leadings.  Out  of  every  sincere  soul  struggle, 
your  faith  shall  come  forth,  stronger  and  calmer. 
And  do  not  hesitate  to  proclaim  your  new  convic- 
tions, when  they  have  become  convictions.  Such  is 
the  encouragement  and  sympathy  that  the  church 
should  give  the  candid  questioner. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  may  wisely  caution  him,  not  to 
be  precipitate,  in  publishing  his  doubt.  Let  him  wait 
until  it  has  become  more  than  a  doubt;  till  it  has  become 
a  settled  and  well-considered  conclusion,  before  he  in- 
flicts it  upon  his  neighbor.  The  very  justification  for 
doubting  the  accepted  opinion,  the  sacredness  of  truth, 
■ — commands  caution  and  firm  conviction  that  our  new 
view  is  something  more  than  a  passing  caprice  of  the 
mind,  before  we  publish  it.  But  when  the  doubter  is 
sure  of  this, — then,  let  him  no  longer  silence  his 
highest  thoughts. 


194      TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  TEE  NEW  TEOUGET 

Again,  the  church  is  justified  in  cautioning  the 
doubter  not  to  be  proud  of  his  doubt  as  a  doubt. 
There  is  no  more  merit,  it  is  well  to  remember,  in  dis- 
believing than  in  believing ;  and  if  your  opinions 
have,  as  yet,  only  got  to  the  negative  state  and  you 
have  no  new  positive  faith  or  philosophy  to  substitute 
for  the  old, — you  are  doing  your  neighbor  a  poor 
service  in  taking  away  from  him  any  superstition, 
however  illogical,  that  sustains  his  heart  and  strength- 
ens his  virtue. 

And  further,  let  me  say, — I  should  dislike  very 
much  to  have  any  sceptic  contented  with  doubt. 
Doubt  makes  a  very  good  spade  to  turn  up  the 
ground ;  but  a  very  poor  kind  of  spiritual  food  for  a 
daily  diet.  It  is  a  useful,  often  an  indispensable 
half-way  house  in  the  journey  of  life  ;  but  a  very  cold 
home  in  which  to  settle  down  in,  as  the  end  of  that 
journey. 

In  all  our  deepest  hours,  when  our  heart  is  truly 
touched  or  our  mind  satisfied, — we  believe.  It  is 
each  soul's  positive  faith,  however  unconventional  or 
perhaps  unconscious  that  faith  may  be,  that  sustains 
its  hope,  that  incites  its  effort  and  that  supports  it 
through  the  trials  of  life.  Any  doubt,  even,  that  is 
earnest  and  to  be  respected,  is  really  an  act  of  faith, — 
faith  in  a  higher  law  than  that  of  human  creeds,  faith 
in  a  more  direct  revelation,  within  ourselves,  in  our 
own  sense  of  justice  and  consistency,  than  is  to  be 
found  in  any  manuscript  or  print. 

The  very  Atheist  who  in  the  name  of  truth,  repu- 
diates the  word  of  God,  is  really  manifesting  (in  his  own 
different  way)  the  belief  which  he  cannot  escape,  in 


MODERN  DOGMATISM  195 

the  Divine  Righteousness  and  its  lawful  claim  on  every 
human  soul.     She  was  right  who  wrote  : 

"  There  is  no  unbelief. 
And  day  by  day  and  night  by  night,  unconsciously, 
The  heart  lives  by  that  faith  the  lips  deny ; — 
God  knows  the  why." 

Finally — and  most  important  of  all — let  us  not 
worry  ourselves  so  much  about  the  intellectual  opin- 
ions of  men ;  but  look  rather  to  their  spiritual  condi- 
tion. The  Church  ought  to  think  less  of  creed  and 
more  of  character.  The  essence  of  faith  lies  not  in 
correct  conclusions  upon  doctrinal  points ;  but  in 
righteousness  and  love  and  trustful  submission  to 
God's  will.  No  scepticism  concerning  dogmas  touches 
the  heart  of  religion.  If  that  seems  at  all  heretical, 
let  me  cite  good  Orthodox  authority.  I  might  quote 
Bishop  Thirlwall  of  the  Church  of  England,  in  his 
judgment  concerning  Colenso's  attack  upon  the  ac- 
curacy of  the  history  of  the  Exodus  in  the  Pentateuch, 
— that  "  this  story, — nay  the  whole  history  of  the  Jew- 
ish people,  has  no  more  to  do  with  our  faith  as  Chris- 
tians, than  the  extraction  of  the  cube  or  the  rule  of 
three."  Or  I  might  quote  Canon  Farrar's  weighty 
words  in  an  article  upon  the  true  test  of  religion. 
"  The  real  question,"  he  declares,  "  to  ask  about  any 
form  of  religious  belief,  is  :  Does  it  kindle  the  fire  of 
love  ?  Does  it  make  the  life  stronger,  sweeter,  purer, 
nobler  ?  Does  it  run  through  the  whole  society  like 
a  cleansing  flame,  burning  up  that  which  is  mean  and 
base,  selfish  and  impure  ?  If  it  stands  that  test  it  is 
no  heresy."     That  answers  the  question  as  aptly  as  it 


196      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

does  manfully.  And  to  the  same  effect  is  that  notable 
saying  of  Dr.  Mcllvaine  at  the  Presbyterian  Presbytery 
a  few  years  ago,  when,  quoting  the  admission  of  one 
evangelical  minister  that  it  was  the  Unitarian  Marti- 
neau  who  had  saved  his  soul  and  kept  his  Christian 
faith  from  shipwreck,  he  added  significantly,  "  you 
must  first  find  God  in  your  soul  before  you  can  find 
Him  elsewhere."  Yes — the  prime  and  essential  thing 
is  to  find  God  in  the  soul ;  to  worship  Him  in  spirit ; 
by  a  pure  conscience ;  by  a  loyal  will ;  by  a  heart  full 
of  devotion  to  God's  righteousness,  and  by  love  to  all 
our  kind.  This  is  to  worship  God  in  truth.  And 
what  have  Calvin's  Five  points  or  the  composite  or 
non-composite  origin  of  the  Pentateuch,  or  the  virgin 
birth  of  Christ  to  do,  with  such  worship  ?  If  a  man 
finds  evidence  for  them,  which  seems  to  him  satis- 
factory ;  very  well.  But  if  he  cannot  honestly  credit 
them, — why  should  we  shut  the  doors  of  the  Church 
against  him  or  threaten  him  with  excommunication  ? 
Were  these  the  requirements  that  Jesus  Christ  laid  on 
his  disciples  ?  Not  at  all.  Look  all  through  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount, — study  the  Golden  Rule,  and  the 
Parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  or  the  conditions  he 
lays  down  in  his  picture  of  the  Last  Judgment  as  the 
conditions  of  approval  by  the  Heavenly  Judge,  and 
see  if  you  find  anything  there  about  the  infallibility  of 
scripture  or  the  Apostolic  succession  or  the  Deity  of 
Christ  or  any  other  of  the  dogmas  on  account  of 
which  the  ecclesiastical  disciplinarians  would  drive 
out  the  men  whom  they  are  pursuing  as  heretics. 
How  grimly  we  may  fancy  Satan  (if  there  be  any 
Satan)  smiling  to  himself  as  he  sees  great  Christian 


MODERN  DOG3IATIS3f  197 

denominations  wrought  up  to  a  white  heat  over  such 
dogmas  and  definitions,  while  the  practical  atheism 
and  pauperism  and  immorality  of  our  great  metropolis 
is  passed  over  with  indifference.  Sunday  after  Sun- 
day, the  Christian  pulpit  complains  that  the  great 
masses  of  the  people  keep  away  from  their  communion 
tables  and  do  not  even  darken  their  doors.  Does  not 
the  fault  really  lie  in  the  folly — I  may  almost  say  the 
sin  of  demanding  of  men  that  they  believe  so  many 
things  that  neither  reason  nor  enlightened  moral  sense 
can  accept,  and  making  of  these  dogmas,  five  barred 
gates  through  which  alone  there  is  any  admission  to 
heaven  ?  If  we  wish  the  Church  to  regain  its  hold  on 
thinking  men  it  must  simplify  and  curtail  its  creeds ; 
it  must  recognize  that  the  love  of  God  is  not  measured 
by  the  narrowness  of  human  prejudice  and  that  God's 
arms  are  open  to  receive  every  honest  searcher  after 
truth.  Let  him  come  with  all  his  doubts ;  provided 
he  come  with  a  pure  heart  and  bring  forth  the  fruits 
of  righteousness.  Let  us  no  longer  pretend  that  it  is 
necessary  for  a  Christian  life  to  know  all  the  mysteries 
of  God.  Let  it  no  longer  be  thought  a  mark  of  wick- 
edness for  a  man  honestly  to  hold  a  conviction  differ- 
ent from  the  conventional  standard ;  but  let  us  respect 
one  another's  independent  search  and  judgment  of 
truth.  True  faith  consists  not  in  any  special  theory 
of  God  or  His  ways,  but  in  the  uplifting  of  our  spirit 
to  touch  His  spirit  and  the  diffusing  of  whatever  grace 
or  gift  we  have  received  from  Him,  in  generous  good 
will  amongst  our  fellows.  If  the  Christian  Church  is 
to  go  forward  successfully  again  in  the  power  and 
spirit  of  that  Master  whom  it  constantly  invokes  as 


198      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

"  the  way ;  the  truth  and  the  life  "  ;  it  must  make  that 
way  and  Hfe  its  guiding  truth.  It  must  aim  constantly 
at  greater  simplicity  in  its  teaching,  and  a  broader, 
more  fraternal  cooperation  in  Christian  work.  Its 
motto  should  be  the  motto  of  the  early  Church — "  In 
essentials,  unity ;  in  non-essentials,  liberty ;  in  all 
things, — charity."  Then  shall  a  new  and  grander 
career  open  before  its  upward  footsteps. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

UNION   OF  THE  CHURCHES  IN  ONE  SPIRITUAL  HOUSEHOLD. 

Fairest  of  the  dreams  of  early  Christianity  was  the 
dream  of  a  single  household  of  God,  where  all  the 
children  of  the  Heavenly  Father,  of  whatever  race  or 
tongue,  should  be  brought  together  into  one  great 
family,  in  the  bond  of  mutual  love  and  a  common 
worship.  It  was  the  prayer  of  Jesus,  in  that  last 
tender  hour  with  His  disciples  before  His  arrest.  It 
was  the  vision  that  inspired  Paul  to  such  heroic 
labors  ;  it  was  the  aspiring  flame  that  rose  up  from  the 
hearts  of  the  Apostles  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  to  call 
down  on  them  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  whose  solvent  of 
loving  sympathy  Parthians  and  Medes,  Elamites, 
Jews  and  Arabians,  all  understood  their  neighbor  as 
if  each  spake  in  his  own  tongue.  From  century  to 
century,  indeed,  the  realization  of  this  dream  has, 
from  causes  too  numerous  to  mention,  constantly 
eluded  the  world.  Still  the  dream  has  kept  its  hold 
on  the  human  heart,  and  many  brave  attempts  have 
been  made  to  give  it  earthly  incarnation.  The  new 
spirit  of  brotherhood  which  Jesus  communicated  has 
worked  as  a  blessed  leaven ;  and  loud  as  the  clash  of 
Babel  voices  has  been  at  times,  yet  the  still  small 
voice  of  human  fellowship  has  kept  whispering  its 
counsels  of  love  and  peace.  Those  who  note  the  ebb 
and    flow   of    religious    currents,   have    observed    all 

199 


200      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

through  the  last  quarter  century  a  great  rising  in  this 
tide ;  and,  in  the  great  reHgious  assembhes  connected 
with  the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago,  the  attendance  and 
speakers  at  which  came  from  the  most  distant  quarters 
of  the  globe,  that  tide  of  common  spiritual  sympathy- 
rose  to  a  height  never  before  chronicled  in  history. 

Unprecedented  in  size  and  material,  and  artistic 
magnificence,  as  the  Chicago  Exposition  was,  it  was 
still  more  unprecedented  and  remarkable  in  its  as- 
tonishing Parhament  of  ReHgions.  To  get  together 
on  the  same  platform  Trinitarian  and  Unitarian, 
Monotheists  and  Polytheists,  Roman  cardinals  and 
Free  Religious  Lecturers,  Greek  archbishops  and 
Protestant  presbyters,  Buddhist  monks  and  Confucian 
moralists,  expounders  of  the  Bible,  the  Koran  and 
the  Avesta,  was  indeed  a  marvel.  But  when  from  the 
lips  of  these  representatives  of  diverse  sects,  whose 
ancestors  had  persecuted  and  cursed  and  battled  with 
one  another  so  bitterly ;  when  alike  from  the  yellow 
robed  Buddhists  or  the  scarlet  robed  Cathohc,  from 
the  Greek  ecclesiastic  in  his  bkck  gown,  the  Hindu  in 
his  red,  or  the  Shinto  in  his  white  vestments,  came 
the  same  sentiments  of  righteousness,  aspiration  and 
good-will ;  and  in  their  advocacies  of  their  own  faith, 
earnest  as  they  were,  scarcely  a  word  fell  that  could 
give  offense  to  those  of  rival  faith — it  seemed,  indeed, 
a  new  day  of  Pentecost,  a  descent  of  the  holy  dove  of 
the  Spirit,  beneath  a  rainbow  of  blended  spiritual  rays, 
as  comforting  as  that  which  foretold  to  Noah  and  his 
sons  the  end  of  storm  and  wrath  upon  the  renovated 
earth.  Every  one  who  read  the  inspiring  accounts  of 
these    meetings,  where   the   representatives   of  these 


UNION  OF  THE  CHURCHES  201 

varied  faiths  exchanged  such  pleasant  words  of  amity 
and  mutual  respect,  must  have  been  impelled  to  ask : 
why  may  not  this  Pentecostal  fellowship  be  main- 
tained ?  Why  may  not  Jew  and  Gentile,  Roman  and 
Protestant,  Christian  and  Parsee  and  Brahman,  be 
united,  not  merely  for  a  few  days,  in  some  public 
meeting,  but  constantly,  in  daily  life,  in  the  unity  of 
the  Spirit  and  the  bonds  of  peace ;  and  thus 

*'The  whole  round  earth  be  bound 
With  golden  chains  about  the  throne  of  love  "  ? 

There  is  certainly  in  the  religious  world  a  great 
yearning,  both  conscious  and  unconscious  towards 
this  end.  There  is  a  great  Providential  movement  of 
the  waters,  recalling  the  churches  of  the  world  from 
their  divisions  to  a  new  fellowship.  The  reasons  for 
breaking  through  the  old  sectarian  fences  and  for  bring- 
ing together  in  brotherly  hand-claspings  those  who  are 
working  for  common  ends,  are  patent  to  every  one 
who  will  open  his  eyes.  What  needless  divisions  and 
superfluous  multiplicity  of  sects  are  there.  Our  last 
United  States  census  enumerates  143  different  religious 
denominations,  each  with  its  own  special  organization, 
ritual  and  special  belief.  There  are  half  a  dozen 
diverse  varieties  of  Lutherans ;  twelve  of  Presby- 
terians ;  twelve  of  Mennonites ;  thirteen  of  Baptists ; 
and  seventeen  varied  ecclesiastical  stripes  of  Metho- 
dists. The  differences  between  these  are  of  a  minor 
order ; — the  race  or  European  nation  from  which  they 
came,  or  the  color  of  the  skin  of  the  members,  or 
some  minute  difference  as  to  the  use  of  baptismal 
water  or  musical  instruments,  or  prevenient  or  par- 


202      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

ticular  grace.  They  are  as  near  one  another  as 
brothers  and  sisters  of  one  family ;  and  yet  the  smaller 
the  theologic  or  ritual  differences  between  them, 
the  stronger  oftentimes  are  their  antipathies  and 
aversions.  Through  this  sectarian  rivalry,  little 
villages  of  1,200  or  1,500  people,  only  able  to  sustain 
one  pastor,  have  three,  four  or  five  meeting-houses  of 
different  faiths,  closed  half  the  time.  The  ministers 
receive  but  a  quarter  of  the  salary  they  should; 
charities  languish;  social  Hfe  is  embittered;  and  on 
all  sides  the  Christian  life  of  our  smaller  communities 
exhibits  a  deplorable  inefficiency,  waste,  ill-will,  and 
useless  friction.  John  Adams  once  said :  "  This 
would  be  a  pretty  good  world  if  there  were  no  religion 
in  it."  Doubtless,  it  was  these  evils  into  which  a 
narrow  and  petty  sectarianism  so  often  runs,  which 
had  called  forth  this  impatient  outburst.  But  this 
sectarian  rivalry  and  bigotry  is  really  as  alien  to  the 
spirit  of  true  religion  as  it  is  to  that  of  human  brother- 
hood. The  growth  and  multiplication  of  sects  was,  in 
its  origin,  a  movement  in  the  direction  of  greater 
liberty  and  stricter  loyalty  to  Christ  and  God. 

But  to-day,  it  is  becoming  the  greatest  hindrance 
and  prejudice  to  the  life  of  the  soul  and  the  health  of 
Christendom.  Where  men  become  filled  with  a  living 
sense  of  their  kinship  to  the  Eternal  Spirit  and  to 
each  other,  they  come  with  joy  to  see  that  this  kin- 
ship is  not  confined  to  their  one  little  church  en- 
closure. They  realize  the  deeper  agreements  which 
underlie  their  surface  differences.  They  have  com- 
mon aims  and  are  bound  together  by  common 
interests.       They    serve,     in   their    different     ways, 


UNION  OF  THE  CHURCHES  203 

one  and  the  same  Maker  and  righteous  Law- 
giver. They  would  all  lift  humanity  out  of  the 
ooze  of  vice  and  evil,  and  enthrone  the  spirit 
above  the  flesh.  In  the  materialism  and  animal- 
ism of  the  world  they  have  a  common  foe ; 
and  in  faith  in  the  soul  within  and  the  hopes  of  its 
larger  and  fuller  life  beyond  the  portals  of  death  they 
have  their  common  encouragement  and  support. 

Every  church,  therefore,  that  has  fought  earnestly 
in  this  common  battle  has  made,  and  is  making,  some 
valuable  contribution  to  the  spiritual  victory  sought. 
There  is  good  in  all  the  churches ;  some  special, 
varied  need  of  the  human  heart  which  each  one 
meets.  The  candid  scholar  is  obliged  to  recognize 
how  much  humanity  owes  to  each  of  the  great 
branches  of  the  Christian  vine ;  to  the  Roman  for  its 
comprehensiveness,  its  steadfastness,  its  wonderful 
government  of  the  masses ;  to  Methodism  for  its  zeal 
and  cordial  warmth ;  to  the  Episcopal  for  its  dignity 
and  enlistment  in  Christian  service  of  the  aesthetic 
sensibilities ;  to  the  liberal  Christian  for  his  light  and 
culture ;  to  the  Calvinist  for  his  consistent  logic  and 
stern  inflexibility ;  to  the  Congregationalist  for  his  de- 
fense of  spiritual  independency;  to  our  latest  born 
denomination,  the  Salvation  Army,  for  its  ardent  de- 
votion to  the  rescue  and  salvation  of  those  whom  the 
respectable  churches  usually  ignore.  And  outside  the 
Christian  pale,  the  great  Oriental  faiths  have  also  each 
some  spiritual  lesson  or  precious  ethical  impulse  to 
contribute  that  makes  each  a  helpful  and  holy  acolyte 
in  the  great  cathedral  of  the  world's  worship.  Bud- 
dhism has  its  spirit  of  self-renunciation  and  universal 


204      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

compassion,  that  would  spare  the  life  and  pain  even  of 
the  humblest  insect.  Mohammedanism  has  its  sublime 
submission  to  the  divine  and  its  scrupulous  sobriety ; 
Confucianism  its  filial  fidelity ;  Parseeism  its  punctil- 
ious purity,  truthfulness  and  rectitude. 

And  not  only  has  each  some  special  excellence,  but 
in  their  basal  chords  there  is  a  noteworthy  harmony. 
Let  me  quote  on  this  point  the  significant  declaration 
of  an  eminent  Roman  Catholic  dignitary,  made  at 
Chicago.  I  refer  to  the  words  of  Archbishop  Ireland, 
on  one  of  the  opening  days  of  the  Parliament  of 
Religions  :  "  There  is  a  great  common  ground  in  all 
religions,  consisting  of  the  vital  and  primordial  truths 
about  the  infinite  spiritual  reality."  All  Christian 
sects  are  united  in  these  common  Christian  truths, 
which  as  one  sacred  choir  they  chant  in  unison.  And 
even  when  we  pass  outside  the  Christian  pale,  we  find 
these  fundamental  truths — God,  duty,  immortality,  the 
authority  of  truth,  the  sacredness  of  love — reechoed 
by  Jew  and  Gentile,  Parsee,  Arab,  Brahman  and 
Chinese  in  concordant  strains*,  which  as  they  ascend 
to  the  Divine  ear,  doubtless  blend  in  a  single  sym- 
phony of  praise  and  prayer. 

The  more  carefully  we  study  the  varied  religions  of 
the  globe  the  more  sure  are  we  that  none  is  wholly 
false.  Each  has  its  valuable  and  needed  truth.  But 
none,  on  the  other  hand,  has  the  whole  circle  of  pure 
truth.  Each  but  gives  us  a  segment  of  it.  The 
keener  our  discernment  of  truth  becomes,  the  clearer 
we  see  how  fragmentary  is  that  single  member,  finger, 
foot  or  eye,  that  any  one  denomination  possesses. 
The  partial  truth  which  each  sect  illustrates  makes  us 


UNION  OF  THE  CHURCHES  205 

long  for  that  fuller  beauty  and  perfection  which  can 
only  be  secured  by  bringing  every  limb  and  member, 
obscure  and  uncomely  as  it  may  be,  into  the  one 
complete  body  that  makes  the  God-designed  whole. 

Church  unity  is  undoubtedly  therefore  a  desirable 
thing.  And  I  beheve  it  is  possible.  It  is  more  than 
that.  As  noble  Dr.  Barrows,  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  the  originator  and  organizer  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Religions,  has  said :  "  It  is  a  necessity.  It 
is  being  forced  upon  us  by  the  scandal  and  weakness 
of  schism.  It  is  our  business  to  make  the  conditions 
of  hfe  more  tolerable  here  below ;  to  bridge  over  the 
chasms  which  separate  the  rich  and  the  poor,  to  push 
back  the  evil  forces  of  crime,  intemperance  and  vice, 
that  have  thriven  through  our  disunion." 

The  practical  question  next  presents  itself:  How 
may  this  be  accomplished  ?  How  may  we  reunite  the 
dissevered  branches  of  Christendom  ?  How  may  we 
bring  into  being  that  universal  church,  where  every 
child  of  God,  groping  for  the  truth  or  longing  for 
human  sympathy,  may  find  a  spiritual  home  ? 

For  a  long  time  now,  this  has  been  an  object  of 
earnest  thought,  both  by  thoughtful  individuals  and  by 
many  great  denominations ;  and  no  small  number  of 
solutions  have  been  proposed.  The  English  Church 
in  the  celebrated  Lambeth  proposals,  offered  as  olive 
branches  of  peace  the  Nicene  creed ;  the  authority  of 
the  scriptures  ;  the  historic  episcopate,  and  the  sacra- 
ments of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper.  The  Roman 
Church  has  a  much  simpler  proposition ;  all  it  asks  is 
submission  to  the  Pope.  Protestant  orthodoxy  has 
suggested  the  Trinity,  atonement  and  other  doctrines, 


206       THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

agreed  upon  by  the  Evangelical  Alliance.  The  Ethical 
Culture  societies  believe  a  purely  ethical  basis  would 
unite  all  in  a  single  organization,  in  freedom,  fellow- 
ship and  character. 

These  various  movements  and  proposals  have  each 
failed  practically  to  heal  the  divisions,  or  gain  any 
acceptance  approaching  universality.  The  universal 
Church  must  have  a  broader  basis  than  uniformity  of 
sacraments  or  ritual.  These  are  material  and  out- 
ward. The  essence  of  religion  is  spiritual  and  inward. 
It  lies  in  that  communion  which  needs  neither  plate 
nor  cup ;  in  that  sacrament  of  the  self-surrendered 
heart  which  unites  the  soul  with  its  God,  as  firmly 
without  either  wine  or  water  as  with  them.  The  uni- 
versal Church,  again,  cannot  be  circumscribed  by  limits 
of  race  or  nationality.  Color  is  only  skin  deep.  In 
the  sight  of  God,  as  Rabbi  Hirsch  says :  "  It  is  the 
black  heart,  not  the  black  skin,  which  excludes  ;  it  is 
the  crooked  act,  not  the  curved  nose,  that  ostracizes. 
.  .  .  The  day  of  exclusive  national  religions  is 
past,  the  God  of  the  univer-se  should  speak  to  all 
mankind." 

Neither  can  religious  unity  be  based  upon  an  iden- 
tical creed.  These  minute  and  detailed  confessions  of 
faith  and  catalogues  of  dogma  are  thorn-hedges,  set 
up  for  the  wounding  and  cramping  of  every  large 
mind  and  progressive  thought.  A  man  may  repeat 
all  the  creeds  without  skipping  a  syllable,  and  say  "  I 
believe  "  after  every  Article,  and  yet  have  never  taken 
the  first  step  in  the  Christian  life  ;  and  another  may 
have  followed  in  the  very  footsteps  of  Jesus,  surren- 
dering his  very  heart's  blood  in  his  complete  devotion 


UNION  OF  THE  CHURCHES  207 

to  God  and  man ;  and  yet,  through  some  intellectual 
scrupulosity,  not  be  able  to  find  one  of  all  the  churches' 
creeds  that  he  can  assent  to.  Our  belief  is  not  a  mat- 
ter we  can  change  at  will ;  and  it  becomes  increasingly 
evident  that  uniformity  of  dogma  should  not  be  de- 
manded as  the  sine  qua  7ion  of  religious  fellowship. 
As  a  broad-minded  Methodist  (Rev.  Frank  M.  Bristol) 
has  recently  said :  "  Christianity  is  becoming  more 
and  more  a  life  and  a  hope,  and  less  and  less  a  dogma 
and  a  theory.  To  me  the  test  is  as  to  a  man's  sin- 
cerity. When  I  know  a  man  is  sincere,  that  is  enough. 
I  want  his  hand  and  his  fellowship  in  the  common 
work  of  bettering  the  world." 

Nor,  once  more,  have  I  any  confidence  in  seeing 
religious  unity  secured  by  ecclesiastical  organization ; 
by  the  swallowing  up  of  weak  sects  by  stronger  rivals  ; 
by  the  voluntary  surrender  of  modern  churches  to 
that  which  can  show  the  greatest  flavor  of  antiquity; 
by  the  supersedure  of  the  many  old  denominations  by 
churchly  fusions  ;  by  some  brand  new  organization  of 
a  more  flexible  and  comprehensive  nature ;  or  by  some 
nebulous  pet  phrase,  that  soon  becomes  as  rigid  a 
shibboleth  as  any  of  old.  The  older  a  denomination 
is,  the  more  fossilized  and  unfit  for  present  uses  it  is 
apt  to  be.  And  the  new  movement  that,  by  its  de- 
lightfully vague  and  elastic  character,  promises  to 
engulf  and  erase  all  the  old  churches,  usually  ends  by 
adding  but  another  name  to  the  long  catalogue  of 
petty  and  obscure  sects.  As  has  been  aptly  said, 
**  A  novel  does  not  escape  from  being  a  novel  by 
dubbing  itself 'The  no-name  series.'"  Great  church 
administrations,  like   great   political    bodies,  are    un- 


208       TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  TEE  NEW  TEOUGET 

wieldy  and  undesirable.  To  fuse  into  one  ecclesias- 
tical body,  denominations  with  diverse  tendencies,  such 
as  the  Catholics  and  the  Quakers,  the  Greek  Christians 
and  the  Congregationalists,  would  be  a  useless  experi- 
ment. Unite  them  to-day,  to-morrow  they  would  fall 
apart.  Even  could  one  church  absorb  all  the  rest,  it 
would  not  be  desirable.  In  the  one  spiritual  body  as 
in  the  material,  a  variety  of  members,  administrations 
and  gifts  is  needed.  Each  should  be  developed  after 
its  own  special  aptitude,  so  that  thus  the  varying  needs 
of  our  many-sided  human  nature  might  be  met. 

What  then  is  needed  ?  It  is  that  in  all  should  be 
shown  one  and  the  selfsame  Divine  Spirit,  working  all 
in  harmony.  In  the  unity  of  the  spirit  and  the  bond 
of  peace,  let  each  fulfil  its  God-appointed  mission.  If 
any  one  branch  of  Christendom  is  ever  to  absorb  all 
others  ;  if  Christendom  is  ever  to  absorb  Brahmanism, 
or  Brahmanism  to  absorb  Christianity, — that  is  some- 
thing we  are  not  yet  prepared  for. 

If  it  could  be  brought  about  to-day,  it  would  not 
enrich  and  advance  the  fulijess  of  rehgion,  but  would 
impoverish  it.  Protestantism  has  still  too  much  to 
learn  from  Catholicism  and  Catholicism  has  too  much 
to  learn  from  Protestantism,  and  Christendom  too  much 
to  learn  from  the  Oriental  faiths,  and  they  too  much  to 
learn  from  us,  to  make  it  desirable  yet  awhile.  As  the 
broad-minded  Hindu,  Kananda,  said  at  the  Parliament  of 
Religions  :  the  motto  on  the  banner  of  the  religions  of 
the  future  will  be  :  "  Help,  and  not  fight ;  assimilation, 
not  destruction ;  harmony,  not  dissension."  Or  to  quote 
Christian  authority,  as  the  catholic-minded  apostle  to 
the  Gentiles  wrote  in  the  first  century  :     "  If  the  whole 


UNION  OF  THE  CHUBCEES  209 

body  were  an  eye,  where  were  the  hearing?  if  the 
whole  were  hearing,  where  were  the  smelHng  ?  "  So 
we  may  ask :  if  all  Christians  were  conservatives,  where 
were  progress  and  new  growth  ?  If  all  were  pioneers, 
where  were  the  rear-guard  and  the  base  of  sup- 
plies ? 

In  the  midst  of  our  nation's  bitterest  and  bloodiest 
sectional  strife,  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  his  Presidential 
message,  uttered  these  memorable  words:  "With 
malice  towards  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firm- 
ness in  the  right,  let  us  strive  to  bind  up  the  nation's 
wound,  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  a  just  and  last- 
ing peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations." 

It  is  in  this  spirit  that  the  various  branches  of  Chris- 
tendom, the  diverse  members  of  the  household  of  God, 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  Christian  or  pagan,  should  work 
and  seek  each  other's  hands. 

What,  then,  are  the  elements  and  demands  of  such 
a  unity  of  spirit?  In  the  first  place,  all  sects  and 
churches  should  give  to  each  other  mutual  respect — 
not  mere  toleration.  That  word  tolerance  is  itself  in- 
tolerant ;  a  sign  of  patronizing  conceit  and  narrowness. 
We  should  give  more ;  we  should  give  esteem,  rever- 
ence and  fraternal  consideration  to  every  other  servant 
and  worshiper  of  our  common  Father  and  Lawgiver. 
When  we  know  that  a  brother  has  earnestly  and 
honestly  searched  for  the  truth,  let  that  be  a  sufficient 
ground  for  our  regard.  Let  the  churches  recognize 
the  value  and  validity  of  each  other's  ministrations. 
By  the  same  comity,  by  which  a  marriage  in  one  state, 
in  accordance  with  its  laws,  is  recognized  also  as  a 
marriage  in  neighbor  states, — so  should  the  baptism 


210      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

or  admission  to  Christian  membership  or  ordination 
to  the  ministry  given  by  one  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church,  be  recognized  as  good  and  spiritually  efficient 
by  all  other  branches. 

2.  Let  the  attention  of  the  churches  be  directed  to 
their  higher  ends,  not  their  lower  mechanical  and 
administrative  details.  Let  them  fix  their  eyes  and 
efforts  on  the  great  things  in  which  they  agree,  not  on 
the  little  things  in  which  they  differ.  As  Dean 
Stanley  has  so  well  shown,  there  is  a  common  Chris- 
tianity, in  which  all  branches  of  Christendom  are  one  ; 
— that  love  of  God  and  man,  that  sacredness  of  duty 
and  hope  of  heaven  which  is  what  makes  the  gospel 
dear  to  the  human  heart.  The  points  over  which  the 
denominations  divide, — episcopacy,  immaculate  con- 
ception of  the  Virgin,  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  baptism 
by  immersion  or  sprinkling,  inerrancy  of  scripture, 
predestination  of  the  elect — are  points  about  which 
Christ  cared  too  little  ever  to  drop  a  word.  One  of 
the  familiar  stories  is  of  a  lady  who,  when  asked  if  she 
was  a  Christian,  said  she  was  not  sure  that  she  was  a 
Christian,  but  she  was  certain  she  was  a  Baptist. 
How  many  are  there  similarly  who  care  little  for  re- 
ligion, but  are  ardent  Presbyterians,  pronounced 
Methodists,  bigoted  Unitarians.  If  we  are  to  gain  any 
religious  unity,  we  must  reverse  this.  Christians  must 
remember  that  higher  and  more  binding  than  the 
allegiance  due  to  presbyter,  conference,  synod  or 
Pope,  is  their  allegiance  to  Christ  and  to  God.  Above 
all  denominational  leaders — Luther,  Calvin,  Wesley  or 
Channing — they  should  put  their  Lord  and  Master, 
Jesus ;  and  above  all  religions,  Christian  and  Pagan, 


UNION  OF  THE  CHURCHES  211 

they  should  enthrone  the  loyalty  to  truth  and  righteous- 
ness without  which  each  loses  its  saving  salt. 

3.  There  are,  alas,  plenty  of  things  that  tend  to 
separate  and  divide  the  forces  of  religion ;  but  when 
you  scrutinize  these, — be  they  bigotry  and  prejudice, 

or  envy,  ambition,  rivalry,  the  virus  of  party  spirit, 

they  none  of  them  properly  belong  within  the  Church. 
They  are  werewolves  of  irreligion  that,  in  the  guise  of 
defenders  of  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,  have 
cunningly  crept  in  where  they  have  no  right  to  be, 
and  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  are  busy  pulling  down 
the  work  that  Christ's  heart  was  set  upon.  All  the 
great  and  eternal  forces  of  the  religious  realm,  on  the 
contrary,  are  things  that  should  unite,  not  divide 
humanity.  As  we  promote  any  of  these, — knowledge, 
righteousness,  brotherly  love, — we  are  bringing  in 
to  its  rightful  recognition  the  religious  unity  of  the 
world. 

See,  for  example,  how  the  spread  of  knowledge, 
both  spiritual  and  scientific,  tends  to  unity.  How 
many  of  the  old  barriers  and  arbitrary  interpretations 
and  blighting  worship  of  the  letter  has  modern  Bib- 
lical criticism  swept  out  of  the  way  ;  and  how  many 
dark  cobwebs  of  antiquated  theology,  that  filled  pious 
hearts  with  black  despair,  has  science  cleared  off  from 
the  windows  of  faith  !  When  Christian  missionaries 
go  to  the  heathen  with  theologies  almost  as  baseless 
and  superstitious  as  the  heathen's  own,  they  knock  in 
vain  for  entrance.  The  shrewd  pagans  say,  as  a  clever 
Japanese  did  to  an  orthodox  missionary :  "  We  have 
enough  devils  and  hells  of  our  own  to  believe  in  al- 
ready, without  adding  any  foreign  ones."     But  if  our 


212      TEE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

missionaries,  instead,  would  carry  with  them  the  light 
of  modern  knowledge  and  diffuse  our  demonstrable 
science  of  the  universe  and  its  laws,  this  would,  in  a 
generation,  melt  away  this  vast  ice-sheet  of  supersti- 
tions and  false  theories  which  form  the  foundation  of 
their  native  idolatries  and  polytheisms.  If  we  ever 
hope  to  supersede  Paganism  by  Christianity  or  estab- 
lish any  religious  fraternity  and  affiliation  of  the  two, 
this  is  the  path  by  which  we  must  secure  it.  To 
evolve  and  ripen  the  truly  Catholic  or  Universal 
Church,  we  must  get  illumination  and  sunshine  from 
all  quarters.  They  who  think  that  from  their  single, 
personal  or  denominational  standpoint  they  can  see 
the  whole  circumference  and  fix  the  exact  position 
and  outline  of  absolute  truth,  show  that  they  have 
still  much  to  learn.  There  is  a  lesson  on  this  point 
that  the  scientific  world  might  give  the  Church. 
When  a  great  phenomenon,  such  as  the  transit  of 
Venus,  takes  place,  no  single  astronomer  nor  any  one 
astronomical  observatory  is  conceited  enough  to  think 
it  can  do  the  whole  work  satisfactorily,  single-handed. 
They  club  their  resources.  They  portion  out  the  con- 
tinent, and  each  group  of  astronomers  proceeds  to  a 
different  point  of  observation,  before  agreed  upon,  in 
friendly  cooperation.  Then,  after  the  observation  is 
taken,  the  personal  equation — that  is,  the  allowance 
for  error,  in  noting  the  time,  due  to  the  individual 
peculiarities  of  each  observer — is  carefully  allowed 
for.  Then,  the  various  observations  are  compared 
and  one  rectified  by  the  others,  and  correction  also 
made  for  the  latitude  and  longitude  and  state  of  the 
atmosphere  at  each  respective  point  of  observation, 


UNION  OF  THE  CHURCHES  .  213 

and  finally  the  whole  added  and  averaged.  It  is  only 
by  such  cooperation  and  mutual  rectification  of  one 
another's  tendencies  to  error  that  astronomers  secure 
results  that  they  put  any  confidence  in.  And  so,  be- 
fore the  religious  world  can  demand  confidence  in  its 
spiritual  perceptions,  it  must  take  equal  care  to  elimi- 
nate from  them  the  twists  and  refractions  of  personal 
idiosyncrasies  and  sectarian  prejudices.  It  must  be 
hospitable  minded  and  ready  to  accept  new  truth  and 
fuller  hght  from  whatever  quarter  it  may  be  gained. 
"  The  spirit  (the  Christian  Union  has  well  said)  that  in- 
sists that  every  man  shall  see  what  every  other  man 
teaches, — no  more,  no  less,  no  different, — is  the  spirit 
of  schism.  It  is  unchristian,  and  anti-Christian,  be- 
cause it  is  the  spirit  of  conceit.  It  belittles  truth ;  it 
divides  and  subdivides  the  Christian  Church.  It  never 
has  promoted  Christian  union,  and  it  never  can." 

The  method  that  leads  there  is  the  opposite  one^ 
that  encourages  every  soul  to  exercise  that  right  of 
private  judgment  which  Luther  vindicated,  and  is  glad 
to  see  Mount  Zion  pictured  from  just  as  many  diverse 
angles  as  possible,  knowing  that  thus  alone  can  a 
complete  representation  of  the  infinite  truth  be  ob- 
tained. 

And  in  the  next  place,  as  a  fourth  step  in  this 
staircase,  we  should  place  the  stone  of  righteousness, 

the  practical  service  of  our  God  and  our  fellow-men. 

While  a  man's  chief  thought  is  for  his  own  soul's  sal- 
vation, he  clutches  at  any  solitary  plank  that  may 
float  him  on  the  wave;  but  when  he  gets  to  that 
higher  view  of  religion  that  identifies  the  holy  life 
with  the  helpful  life,  at  once  he  reaches  out  a  brotherly 


214  ^  THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

hand  to  his  neighbor.  Jesus  said  that  the  second 
commandment  is  hke  unto,  or  born  of,  the  first ;  and 
surely  no  one  can  be  trusted  to  love  the  God  he  has 
not  seen,  if  he  love  not  the  brother  he  has  seen. 
Where  there  is  that  enthusiasm  for  humanity  which 
befits  the  follower  of  Him  who  wished  to  be  called  the 
Son  of  Man,  there  the  interest  in  dogmatic  hair-split- 
ting drops  to  the  proper  subordination.  When  we 
realize  what  the  fight  with  evil  means  to-day ;  what 
Christians  have  got  to  do  when  they  undertake  vigor- 
ously to  grapple  with  the  saloon  question,  the  Sunday 
question,  the  problem  of  poverty  and  abuse  of  child- 
hood ;  when  we  get  in  earnest  in  the  work  of  eleva- 
ting our  race,  of  suppressing  vice,  of  inspiring  men 
with  a  genuine  love  of  purity  and  with  Hving  faith  in 
their  kinship  to  the  Eternal  Spirit  and  to  each  other, 
— then  we  see  that  we  have  no  time  for  denomina- 
tional quarrels ;  we  see  that  these  common  needs  of 
suffering  humanity  call  for  the  united  energies  of  all 
the  Lord's  soldiers  if  we  ever  expect  to  establish  the 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth  ;  ^nd  instead  of  the  present 
emulation  to  make  converts  from  one  another  or  get  a 
longer  list  of  church  members,  the  only  rivalry  will 
be  a  rivalry  in  bettering  the  world  and  an  emulation 
of  each  other's  virtues. 

For  many  generations  the  mediaeval  alchemists 
sought  for  a  universal  solvent.  In  the  physical  realm, 
the  search  is  a  vain  one.  But  in  the  spiritual  realm, 
we  need  not  go  far  for  it.  Love  is  that  universal 
solvent  which  unloosens  all  bonds ;  a  tincture  that 
carries  with  it  healing  for  every  wound.  With  this 
password,  one  should  be  able  to  pass  through  every 


UmON  OF  THE  CHUECEES  215 

interdenominational  camp  and  army  and  find  himself 
everywhere  a  citizen  of  the  Divine  kingdom.     With- 
out love,  belief,  be  it  never  so  close  to  the  creed,  is 
but  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal.     And  so 
religious  unity,  however  huge  be  the  single  organiza- 
tion formed,  however  tight  be  the  bonds  of  its  univer- 
sal  Church,  would  be  (when   love  is  absent)  but  an 
ecclesiastical  tyranny;    an   iron  band,  fatal  to   every 
growing  shoot  of  the  living  vine.     But  where  there  is 
a  positive   Christian   love,  a  spirit  of  sympathy  and 
helpfulness  to  every  neighbor, — what  can  bar  out  such 
a  spirit   from  the  holy  communion?     Suppose  that 
your  religious  brethren  give  you  only  their  indiffer- 
ence or  hate.     You  can  still  give  them  the  guerdon  of 
your  charity,  the  fragrant  olive  branch  of  your  un- 
stinted good  will.     There  is  an  excellent  New  Eng- 
land story  of  an  old  Puritan,  who,  when  he  was  ex- 
communicated by  the  Church,  declined  to  be  cut  off 
from  their  communion.     For  twenty  years  the  good 
old  man  came,  whenever  the  Lord's  Supper  was  ob- 
served, bringing  with  him  his   own  bit  of  bread  and 
draught  of  wine,  and  in  his  own  pew  communed  with 
the  Church  in  spite  of  the  Deacon's  boycott.     When 
a  man  carries  the  Christ-spirit  with  him,  the  fellowship 
of  all  the  saints  becomes  his.     Love  is  a  communion- 
cup,  which  it  needs  no  priest  to  fill,  and  which  always 
gives  the  good  man  membership  in  the  Church  invisi- 
ble, whatever  the  Church  visible  may  say. 

Such,  then,  are  the  needed  seeds  of  religious  unity  ; 

regard     for     essentials — not    inessentials;     mutual 

respect;    devotion  to  knowledge  and  righteousness; 
and  above  all,  a  broad  charity  and  friendly  sympathy. 


216      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

Without  these,  no  ecclesiastical  fusions,  no  hierarchical 
organization,  however  extensive  or  compact,  can  give 
a  religious  unity  that  is  worth  anything.  The  pro- 
motion of  this  broad  Christian  spirit  is  the  first  and 
chief  step.  But  where  these  spiritual  roots  are  planted 
and  made  to  grow,  there  they  will  naturally  bloom 
and  bear  fruit  in  some  sort  of  practical  fraternity ;  and 
the  encouragement  of  such  outward  fellowship  again 
will  foster  and  quicken  the  inward  fellowship.  It 
ought  to  lead  at  once  to  a  large  measure  of  cooper- 
ation. The  smaller  and  kindred  sects,  whose  differ- 
ences are  slight,  ought  to  be  willing  to  consolidate. 
The  seventeen  kinds  of  Methodists  and  the  thirteen 
kinds  of  Baptists  and  the  twelve  kinds  of  Presby- 
terians, holding  beliefs  and  usages  substantially  the 
same,  might  unite,  one  would  think,  without  any 
serious  sacrifice,  and  with  a  great  saving  of  needless 
rivalry  and  waste.  The  same  is  true  among  the 
liberal  churches.  The  difference  between  Unitarians 
and  Universalists  is  one  altogether  too  slight  to  justify 
their  continued  separation  and  rivalship.  Where  the 
kindred  sects  can  thus  honorably  consolidate,  let  them 
do  so.  They  ought  to  do  so.  And  where  this  is  not 
possible,  let  them  try  such  looser  methods  of  alliance 
as  may  bring  them  into  harmony,  without  sacrificing 
what  they  consider  essential  principles.  Following 
the  political  example  of  the  union  of  our  several 
states  in  the  one  United  States,  they  might  (without 
abandoning  their  independent  liberties  and  local  or 
special  administrations)  unite  in  federal  unions,  of 
most  valuable  kinds.  Such  movements  as  the  Evan- 
gelic Alliance,  the  Pan-Presbyterian  Assemblies,  the 


UNION  OF  TEE  CHURCHES  217 

Church  Congresses  of  later  years  are  all  commendable 
efforts  in  this  direction.  Without  gaining  legislative 
authority,  such  Congresses  carry  weightier  moral 
authority  and  cultivate  the  unity  of  spirit  and  practical 
cooperation  which  is  so  valuable  to-day.  Still  more  ex- 
cellent, because  more  filled  with  the  spirit  of  a  genuine 
catholicity,  is  the  Laymen's  League  of  our  Western 
frontier,  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Christian  Unity 
started  recently  in  New  York  by  Professor  Seward, 
and  our  Father's  Church,  instituted  by  the  Rev.  Page 
Hopps,  of  London.  In  these  latter,  all  dogmatic 
tenets  are  dropped ;  love  to  God  and  man  under  the 
leadership  of  Jesus  is  the  only  creed,  and  orthodox 
and  heterodox  alike  are  invited  to  membership.  No 
one  is  asked  to  give  up  his  special  denominational 
connection,  but  for  the  sake  of  practical  Christian 
effort,  they  associate  themselves  on  a  perfectly  simple 
basis  without  regard  to  evangelical  creeds.  What 
may  be  the  future  of  these  new  and  broader  fellow- 
ships that  would  stretch  their  lines  across  all  denomi- 
nations, remains  to  be  seen.  But  as  far  as  they  can 
bring  Christians  into  helpful  cooperation  for  the  bet- 
terment of  human  life,  they  must  do  good.  Hence- 
forth I  hope  to  see  all  branches  of  Christendom  peri- 
odically meeting  in  some  general  assembly,  for  mutual 
fraternity,  counsel  and  inspiration ;  and  the  grand 
Parliament  of  Religions  may,  I  trust,  prove  to  be  but 
the  first  of  a  series  of  similar  conferences,  a  federation 
of  the  religious  world,  both  Christian  and  Pagan,  to 
advance  the  great  interests  they  have  in  common. 
But  without  waiting  for  any  such  imposing  assem- 
blages or  new  organizations,  there  is  a  work  for  each 


218      THE  NEW  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

Christian  close  at  hand,  quite  as  important.  In  all 
our  cities  and  towns  there  is  a  need  and  opportunity, 
without  more  ado,  for  friendly  co-working  among  aU 
sects.  There  are  moral  reforms,  social  problems,  calls 
of  human  misery,  educational  and  philanthropic  enter- 
prises that  demand  the  collected  efforts  of  all  Christian 
hearts,  without  distinction  of  sect  or  faith.  In  our 
smaller  villages,  certainly,  steps  ought  to  be  taken 
either  for  the  direct  union  of  the  many  poverty- 
stricken  chapels  that  struggle  with  each  other  for  ex- 
istence ;  or  else  for  their  dissolution  and  reconstruction 
on  some  honorable  basis  which  will  provide  for  freedom 
and  fellowship  in  worship. 

Whatever  dogmatism  or  sectarian  ambition  divides 
and  impoverishes  the  forces  that  are  battling  to  main- 
tain righteousness  and  uplift  humanity  is  a  form  of 
anti-Christ.  Whatever  can  bring  these  forces  into 
closer  union  and  a  firmer  front ;  whatever  can  make  the 
people  learn  to  think  of  the  church  as  one  body  in 
many  members, — be  it  pulpit  exchanges  between  the 
clergy  of  different  denominations  ;  city  Ministerial  As- 
sociations, or  State  Conferences  of  religion,  embracing 
all  denominations ;  union  meetings  for  prayer  or 
thanksgiving ;  common  communion-services,  open  to 
members  of  all  denominations  of  Christians,  without 
invidious  distinctions, — any  signal  of  a  broader  good- 
will between  the  churches,  erasing  sectarian  divisions, 
however  trivial  it  may  be,  is  helping  forward  the  prayer 
of  the  Master  that  "  they  all  may  be  one." 

Of  one  blood,  says  Paul,  are  we  all  made.  With 
God,  the  common  Father,  there  is  no  respect  of  per- 
sons.    One  and  the  same  heaven  is  the  haven  of  peace 


UNION  OF  TEE  CHURCHES  i:       219 

and  love  we  all  seek.  Back  of  every  varied  soul  and 
symbol  stands  the  one  Holy  Spirit,  by  whose  in- 
spiration the  holy  men  that  founded  each  diverse 
church  spake  as  they  were  moved  in  their  respective 
age  and  land.  No  path  of  prayer  but  has  lifted  men 
nearer  God ;  no  creed  has  man  framed  but  was  as  the 
broken  lispings  of  an  infant,  beside  the  unutterable 
perfection  of  the  Divine. 


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